First Virtual Settles SEC Allegations

First Virtual Communications Inc. and three current and former executives agreed to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they inflated the company’s 1998 revenue.

The executives, including the Santa Clara, Calif., company’s founder and chairman, Ralph Ungermann, agreed to pay a total of $1.3 million, the SEC said. Other officials charged were former Chief Financial Officer James O. Mitchell and Alan J. McMillan, former vice president of sales.

The SEC alleged that the company inflated 1998 earnings and revenue in a January 1999 news release. The executives sold their company stock after the company had inflated its results, making $620,000 in illegal profits, the SEC alleged.