PHILADELPHIA — Adelphia Communications, under investigation for questionable accounting practices between the company and partnerships controlled by the family of founder John J. Rigas, Monday said it had dismissed Deloitte & Touche as its accountant.

        The company also acknowledged that it had overstated its revenue for the years 2001 and 2000.

        Meanwhile, Leonard Tow, chairman of Citizens Communications and Adelphia's largest minority shareholder, and another Citizens executive, Scott Schneider, resigned from the Adelphia board Monday, with Mr. Tow citing “ongoing serial disclosures of wrongdoing” at the company.

        Mr. Tow, who owns 12 percent of Adelphia's stock, and Mr. Schneider had just joined the board May 28. Mr. Tow said they were resigning because the flurry of disclosures and unreliability of information from Adelphia made it impossible for him to carry out his goal of helping to stabilize the company's finances.

        The nation's sixth-largest cable television system owner has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and two federal grand juries since disclosing off-the-books lending now estimated at more than $3 billion to the Rigases and to Rigas-controlled companies.

        The company said it was “disappointed” Mr. Tow and Mr. Schneider quit but said its remaining independent directors, management and employees “remain committed to preserving Adelphia's many strengths, and restoring the company's credibility among its key stakeholders.”

        In a filing earlier Monday with the SEC, Adelphia lowered its 2001 revenue figures to $3.51 billion from the $3.58 billion stated in its earnings report, and cut its 2000 revenue total to $2.55 billion from $2.6 billion.

        It also said in the filing that it was lowering its subscriber count by more than 47,000, to 5.76 million.

        One way revenue figures were inflated, the company said, was through agreements with vendors of digital converter boxes to raise the price the company paid by $26 per set-top box. The company then received $26 per box from the vendors for “marketing support,” though the SEC filing said it “did not provide a material amount of marketing support.”

        The company improperly treated the “marketing support” payments as a reduction in operating expenses, and treated its payments for the boxes as capital expenditures, increasing its earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortization by about $54 million in 2001 and $37 million in 2000, the document said.

        Officials at Deloitte & Touche didn't immediately return calls for comment on its dismissal, which Adelphia said occurred Sunday. Adelphia said it was hiring a new accounting firm, but did not say who the new accountant would be.

        Adelphia spokesman Eric Andrus declined to elaborate or to comment on speculation that Adelphia may seek protection from creditors under the federal bankruptcy laws.

        “We believe that a bankruptcy filing by Adelphia Communications is likely an imminent event,” UBS Warburg analyst Aryeh Bourkoff said in a note to clients.

        Bourkoff noted that the company faces the expiration Saturday of a 30-day grace period on $44.7 million worth of debt payments it missed in mid-May.

        Adelphia revealed the off-the-books borrowing in March and has since missed deadlines for filing reports, including its annual 10-K financial statement, has been delinquent on debt payments and has defaulted on agreements with creditors.

        The company announced May 15 that an audit Deloitte & Touche had been conducting in an effort to complete the 10-K report had been suspended.

        A three-member special committee of independent board members has been investigating questions the audit raised, appointing lawyers, forensic accountants and financial advisers to review the books and interview employees at Adelphia's headquarters in rural Coudersport in northern Pennsylvania.

        Adelphia said Monday the committee was continuing to investigate a broad range of questions including the relationships and transactions between the company, the Rigases, and the Rigas-controlled partnerships. John Rigas and his three sons stepped down in May from executive positions and board seats at company Rigas founded in 1952.

        Adelphia's stock, delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market on June 3, tumbled 12 cents to 18 cents a share in over-the-counter trading Monday. It was trading at $20.39 a share before the off-the-books debt was disclosed in March.

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