Two top former executives of CRM (customer relationship management) vendor Entellium have been charged in federal court with wire fraud after allegedly lying about the Seattle company's sales performance to attract investors.

The government alleges that ex-Entellium CEO Paul Thomas Johnston and former chief financial officer Parrish Jones, who had abruptly resigned last week, allegedly used the phony revenue numbers to gain about US$50 million in private investment funds, according to the government.

Among that total was $19 million from Ignition, a Bellevue, Washington, venture capital firm, which wired Entellium $2 million in April on the basis of the phony figures, according to the government.

Entellium's board was told that 2006 revenues were about $4 million but they were actually $582,789, the government alleges. The revenue figure given for 2007 was $6.2 million, when in reality it was $1.4 million, and the 2008 revenue was said to be $5.2 million instead of the actual figure of $1.7 million, the government alleges.

A human resources worker at Entellium allegedly first found evidence of the fraud in September while cleaning out the desk of a former sales executive at the company.

A lawyer for Entellium alerted federal officials on Oct. 3 about the alleged wrongdoing, according to the complaint against Johnston and Jones filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The complaint includes the text of an e-mail message Johnston allegedly sent to two Entellium board members on Sept. 30. The e-mail reads in part:

"This is a very difficult e-mail to write but effective immediately both Parrish and I are tendering our resignation.

We have both made a grave mistake to [sic] misrepresenting our revenue reporting to the board. Looking back at the time we thought we would be able to right the wrong and correct our representation, but we have not been able to do this. Revenues have been overstated since 2004 with a delta of approximately $400K a month. All other representations are accurate and no one else in the company was aware of this.

Clearly this is devastating news and something we are both [sic] regret and are deeply sorry for. Our families are not aware of this and we are telling them now. Clearly this is going to be a difficult period all around for everyone."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.