The company was also accused in class-action lawsuits brought by shareholders of improperly promoting ribavirin to manipulate its stock price.

Scios is also the subject of a Justice Department investigation into whether it improperly promoted Natrecor for an unapproved use, according to company disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Eliot L. Spitzer, the New York attorney general, disclosed today that his investigation of conflicts of interest among Wall Street research analysts included a review of whether some analysts improperly or fraudulently promoted shares of WorldCom.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority inspector general, responsible for investigating fraud and abuse at the agency, abruptly resigned last month during an inquiry into anonymous accusations that he improperly promoted a subordinate with whom he had a romantic relationship, several state officials said yesterday.

Beneath the Surface On the surface, the issue is whether Mr. Naito, a civil servant for the past 32 years, had improperly promoted a bureaucrat earlier this year just to inflate the young man's resume before he ran for Parliament.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a mutual fund manager and a newsletter publishing company yesterday with fraud for improperly promoting an investment strategy in a newsletter edited by the manager.

The A.M.A. letter comes as the Food and Drug Administration is examining whether Tokos has been improperly promoting its preventive treatment for pre-term labor, Government officials said.

In response to the publication, numerous authentication vendors began improperly promoting challenge-questions, secret images, and other knowledge-based methods as "multi-factor" authentication.

A number of health care and religious groups are again urging a boycott of Nestle, contending that the company is improperly promoting infant formula in poor nations.

An Air Force Academy chaplain who accused superiors of improperly promoting evangelical Christianity among cadets submitted her resignation from the military on Tuesday, one day before an official task force was to report on the religious climate at the campus, in Colorado Springs.