The Securities and Exchange Commission is stepping up its effort to punish corporate fraud by pursuing charges against board members who ignore misconduct, SEC enforcement chief Stephen Cutler said.

Cutler said the agency will use a case against a former outside board member at Chancellor Corp., a Boston transportation- equipment leasing company, as a model for such enforcement actions. That case, which charged that the director failed to act on evidence of accounting improprieties, is the ''first salvo in this area,'' he said in an interview.

By focusing on directors, the SEC is expanding its scrutiny of corporate watchdogs who oversee management. Since Enron Corp.'s collapse, the agency has sued accounting firms, auditors and investment banks for colluding with management or overlooking wrongdoing. Cutler said he's not aware of any other SEC case against an outside director not directly involved in fraud.

''This case signifies the commission's willingness to pursue cases against outside directors who were reckless in their oversight of management and asleep at the switch,'' Cutler said of the action against Rudolph Peselman, a former Chancellor director who also served on its audit committee.