The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the administrative action against auditors Gregory Dearlove and William Caswell for alleged improper professional conduct.

Caswell agreed to settle the case by being barred for at least two years from auditing a public company. He neither admitted nor denied the allegations.

The SEC is seeking an injunction against Dearlove and restitution to investors, with the case to be heard by an administrative law judge at the agency. His attorney, Joseph Sedita, disputed the allegations and said his client would contest them.

Sedita said that they had told the SEC lawyers, "You've got your facts wrong, you've got your accounting wrong."

Deloitte & Touche, a Big Four accounting firm, in April agreed to pay $50 million to settle the SEC's charges in relation to its audit of Adelphia, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002 after founder John Rigas and others were accused of using the company as their private piggy bank and cheating investors out of millions. Rigas and his son, Timothy, were convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud and securities fraud last year.

Also in April, Adelphia avoided criminal fraud charges in a deal with the Justice Department in which the company received $1.5 billion in cable television systems and other assets from John Rigas and family members and agreed to pay the government just under half that amount.