OSLO -- Police in Norway last week charged Microsoft Corp. subsidiary Fast Search & Transfer ASA with accounting fraud, alleging that it improperly reported revenue in 2006 and 2007 -- before it was bought by Microsoft.

The police also raided the enterprise search vendor's headquarters here, seizing computers and documents, said Bard Thorsen, a Norwegian government prosecutor. He added that the Microsoft unit, which is known as FAST, could be fined if found guilty.

Norway's financial regulatory agency reported FAST to Oslo police in May. That same month, just days after being acquired by Microsoft in late April, FAST restated its results for the previous two years.

Microsoft said it is cooperating with the police and taking steps to align FAST's accounting practices with its own.

-- Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service