Navistar (NYSE:NAV)
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Navistar International Corp. (NAV) said Monday Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Ustian will return part of his 2004 bonus and several former employees are expected to pay fines as part of a tentative settlement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's probe of the truck and engine maker's accounting practices.

The Illinois company, however, will not have to admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which also requires the agency's approval. Ustian received a $2 million bonus for 2004. The company did not disclose how much of that bonus will be returned and did not identify the names of former Navistar employees who face fines.

"This settlement will enable our company to put this matter behind us," said Ustian in a written statement.

The investigation, which has lasted more than three years, resulted in the company restating financial results for 2002 through 2005 to correct accounting errors. Navistar recorded nearly $2 billion in restatement changes.

During the lengthy restatement process, Navistar was unable to report financial results for 2006 and 2007, causing the company to be delisted for more than a year from the New York Stock Exchange. Navistar also was bounced from the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. The company's shares traded over the counter during its absence from the exchange.

The SEC cited Navistar for a range of accounting procedural errors and irregularities, including timing issues related to the booking of revenue. The company acknowledged that most of the errors stemmed from its employees' lack of knowledge of more stringent SEC reporting regulations adopted in the aftermath of corporate accounting scandals earlier this decade.

The company also admitted that some of the smaller, but in some cases material, adjustments were due to "instances of intentional misconduct." Navistar said most people involved in misconduct are no longer with the company.

Navistar complained bitterly that its longtime auditor Deloitte & Touche endorsed many of the company's faulty reporting procedures.

In August, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a federal agency, fined a former Deloitte partner $75,000 for allegedly helping Navistar avoid restating the company's 2003 financial results when $19.7 million worth of errors were discovered in the company's financing unit that would have lowered Navistar's earnings. The agency earlier fined another Deloitte partner $25,000 for signing off on the 2003 financial results.

Deloitte was not cited as part of the board's proceedings, but Navistar has dropped the firm as its as its auditor. General Counsel Steven Covey said Monday that the company "has invested heavily in systems and personnel to ensure that events that led to the restatement will not occur in the future."

Navistar's shares closed Monday at $39.09 and were inactive after hours.

-By Bob Tita, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4129; robert.tita@dowjones.com

(Kathy Shwiff contributed to this report)