James W. Buddle has been promoted to...

James W. Buddle has been promoted to president and chief executive of Arrays Inc. in a management shake-up.

Last September, the Los Angeles-based computer software maker opened an internal investigation into allegations by its chief financial officer “concerning the company’s financial statements and certain members of senior management.”

Buddle succeeds Chairman James D. Sadlier as chief executive and Henry Scheinberg as president. Sadlier will continue as chairman and Scheinberg has been named vice chairman, the firm announced, adding that both “will report directly to Buddle.”

The company has not announced any conclusion of its investigation. Scheinberg said last Nov. 20 that the investigation was expected to be concluded in early December but later said that it was not completed. The company did not give details of the allegations or identify the officers involved.

Buddle did not respond to a telephone inquiry by The Times on Thursday. A former vice president at Mattel Inc., Buddle joined Arrays last August as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The company said that its board “indicated that Buddle’s selection as president and chief executive officer now was a planned-for decision and a logical evolvement of his day-to-day direction of the company’s activities.”

Sadlier will remain in charge of all product development and acquisition activities and Scheinberg will continue to direct the marketing program as well as special projects, the firm said.

A pending class-action suit was filed last Nov. 15 in U.S. District Court here on behalf of persons who lost heavily in Arrays stock.

The suit names as defendants Sadlier, Scheinberg, Henry H. Waldman, Steven A. Koffler and Louis A. Kwiker, along with Arrays and A. G. Becker Paribas Inc., a New York brokerage firm. Waldman was the chief financial officer who brought the internal charges against other executives.