AOL accounting trial reportedly near end

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Federal prosecutors concluded their accounting-fraud case against two former America Online executives Thursday, according to a published report.

The Washington Post reports that the trial that started in October is one of the longest criminal trials ever in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., which is widely known for quick trials.

More than three dozen government witnesses testified about complex accounting tricks that were allegedly done by the defendants dating back to early 2001, soon after the so-called bursting of the Internet bubble.

The paper reports testimony in the case was that managers at AOL struggled to show revenue and advertising gains by making questionable deals with dot-com business partners in which no revenue changed hands.

AOL is a unit of Time Warner (Charts), which also owns CNNMoney.com.

Time Warner agreed to pay more than $500 million to settle joint civil and criminal charges against the company two years ago.

There are two remaining former AOL executives facing charges in the case, according to the report: business affairs executive Kent Wakeford and Netbusiness unit vice president John Tuli. In addition, Christopher Benyo, a former employee of the dot.com company PurchasePro, is also a defendant, according to the report.

But PurchasePro founder Charles "Junior" Johnson, who was originally a defendant as well, was separated from the case and had his trial declared a mistrial for undisclosed reasons, the paper reports. Federal prosecutors intend to retry him.

In addition, the paper reports that two former AOL officials who led the business-affairs operation, David Colburn and Eric Keller, had their names come up regularly in testimony and had once had been the focus of government investigation. But charges were never filed against them and the five-year statute of limitations against them expired early last year.

The Post reports that defense lawyers could wrap up their case in the next several days, and that none have indicated they will testify in the case.

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