Three executives, including two from finance, resigned from Cablevision Systems and its CSC Holdings, Inc. subsidiary, the company announced in an 8-K filing late last week. The company did not provide a reason for the departures.
Those resigning their posts at the Bethpage, N.Y. cable operator were Raymond Andersen, senior vice president, controller, and acting principal accounting officer; Luigi Cestra, vice president and divisional controller of cable operations; and Andrew Rosengard, executive vice president, development.
CFO and executive vice president Michael Huseby will serve as acting principal accounting officer until a new one is named, according to the company. Huseby, a cable industry veteran, joined Cablevision and CSC Holdings a little more than a month ago, having previously served as executive vice president and CFO of Charter Communications Holdings for about eight months.
In 2003, he was a consultant to Comcast Communications and from October 1, 2003 until December 31, 2003 he was a consultant to Charter. Under his employment contract, Huseby would be paid a minimum annual salary of $750,000. He could also receive a bonus valued at up to 80 percent of his base salary. Huseby received $225,000 when he joined the company.
The SEC has been probing Cablevision’s accounting practices at its American Movie Classics cable channel since June 2003. That month, the company also fired 14 employees, including Kate McEnroe, then head of AMC, after an internal review identified improper expense accruals.
Cablevision is one of a number of high-profile companies based in New York’s Long Island that have been investigated recently for their accounting practices. The others include Computer Associates, Symbol Technologies, and KeySpan.