1.   The audit showed that the company had mislead investors.

2.   Arthur Levitt, for example, was keenly interested in accounting fraud and the kind of earnings management that he believed misleads investors.

3.   AremisSoft, a software company, said Tuesday that it had not misled investors about how many programmers it employed or the value of its contracts.

4.   ASKIN SETTLES WITH SEC David Askin, whose investment fund collapsed after bond prices plunged last year, settled SEC charges that he had misled investors.

5.   At the time, AremisSoft said it had not misled investors about how much its contracts are worth.

6.   A few months later, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges against Aura, alleging its financial reports misled investors.

7.   A shareholder filed suit yesterday, claiming the company misled investors about the ownership of patented technology for cellular phone fraud-prevention systems.

8.   ADT said investors were misled by optimistic company forecasts that neglected to mention the risky real estate investments.

9.   All of the lawsuits allege the securities firms misled investors about the riskiness of the partnerships.

10.   But a closer look provides a cautionary tale about how investors can be misled by focusing only on percentage returns.