A senior executive at business software firm Cognos has been reassigned after he was indicted by U.S. authorities in connection with an accounting scandal at his former employer, Peregrine Systems.

The U.S. Justice Department indictment accused Andrew Cahill, who's been a senior vice president of operations at Cognos for just five months, of "conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and falsifying books and records" at Peregrine Systems.

Cahill is one of 11 people named in the indictment. He had been one of Peregrine's executive vice-presidents of worldwide sales.

"The indictment charges these defendants with a massive conspiracy that had at its core one corrupt goal: to hit the numbers quarter after quarter, no matter what," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a statement.

The FBI says shareholders in Peregrine lost more than $4 billion US when their stock became worthless because of what the Bureau called "a multi-billion dollar securities fraud."

Peregrine filed for bankruptcy protection in September of 2002, four months after it launched an internal investigation into potential misstatements in its prior financial reports.

Peregrine's books had to be restated for the period from April 1999 to the end of 2001.

Ottawa-based Cognos said Wednesday it was "monitoring developments" and had reassigned Cahill to other duties.

The company also announced plans to buy-back and cancel up to 5 per cent of its common shares.

Cognos shares fell 81 cents to close at $46.