Former employees of the Islandia, N.Y.-based software maker said the company improperly backdated and forward-dated customer contracts to shift revenues between fiscal quarters, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing former employees and lawyers with knowledge of the matter.

The company has maintained that the federal Securities and Exchange Commission's yearlong probe was interested only in its historical practices, mainly surrounding a $1.1 billion stock grant to three top executives in 1998.

In a statement Monday responding to the Journal's report, CA suggested its former employees made the revelations "in an attempt to embarrass the company and press their individual lawsuits" against Computer Associates.

The company said its outside auditors had already cleared the transactions cited by the Journal. The transactions, CA said, were booked properly, according to company policies.

The statement said the former employees had probably been confused by dates on sales proposal documents and contract signing dates.

One transaction cited in the Journal was a contract with Allstate Insurance Co. that wasn't booked until the quarter after the deal was signed. A former employee said she believed the delay was meant to boost earnings.