Milliken had hardly been in the post long enough to warm the CEO's chair, serving only four months, coming to the position as the result of the merger of OfficeMax and paper products company Boise Cascade Corp., where he was president and CEO of the Boise Office Solutions division. Last month, OfficeMax CFO Brian Anderson quit after just two months on the job.

OfficeMax's troubles stem from a probe the company launched late last year into allegations that a number of its employees falsified supporting documents for about $3.3 million in claims billed to a vendor, very likely as a scheme to enrich themselves, though the company has refused to release any details. It has been reported that six employees associated with the bogus documents have been fired, however (the six do not include Milliken or Anderson).

Also during its investigations, the company says it has determined that rebates and other payments from vendors in 2004 were not recorded in the appropriate accounting periods, so that operating income in the first fiscal quarter of 2004 was overstated and the second and third fiscal quarters of 2004 were understated. These difficulties are unrelated to the fabricated vendor documents.