The former chairman and chief executive of Federated Department Stores Incorporated, corporate parent of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges he lied under oath to hide antitrust violations.

James M. Zimmerman, 61, who retired from Federated in February 2003, pleaded not guilty to first-degree perjury when he was arraigned in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court on an indictment unsealed yesterday by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Prosecutors allege Mr. Zimmerman lied under oath last April 9 when he was asked whether he had discussed ways to keep the Bed, Bath & Beyond stores from selling Lenox tableware and Waterford Wedgwood USA crystal and china products.

Justice James Yates released Mr. Zimmerman on $50,000 bail and scheduled his next court date for March 3. He faces up to seven years in prison.

Thomas Fitzpatrick, Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, said his client is innocent.

“He has been indicted for failing to recall a brief portion of a brief telephone conversation that occurred almost three years before his testimony,” the lawyer said.

Mr. Fitzpatrick said it was “most unfortunate” that the attorney general filed the charge “against such a respected and honest corporate leader whose integrity has been beyond reproach.”

“It ultimately will become perfectly clear that he told the truth and that he did not intentionally mislead the examiner,” Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer said.

The indictment stemmed from an antitrust investigation Mr. Spitzer’s office began in 2003. Prosecutors were probing a 2001 project in which Bed Bath & Beyond wanted to begin a test program to sell Lenox and Waterford Wedgwood products.

In a civil antitrust lawsuit, Mr. Spitzer alleged that Federated and May Department Stores, which operates Lord & Taylor, pressured Lenox and Waterford to cancel the test program.

The Zimmerman indictment says a prosecutor from Mr. Spitzer’s office, in the antitrust investigation, went to Cincinnati to take a sworn deposition from Mr. Zimmerman.

“On April 9, 2004,”the indictment alleges, “the defendant swore falsely” about whether he had discussed with Sir Anthony O’Reilly, chairman of Waterford, whether his company should cancel the sales test with Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Mr. Zimmerman told the prosecutor during the sworn deposition, “I recall I did not discuss Bed, Bath & Beyond,” the indictment says.

The antitrust case against Federated, May, Lenox, and Waterford was settled last August when the companies agreed to pay a total of $2.9 million. In that settlement, Federated agreed to pay $900,000; May, $800,000; Lenox, $700,000, and Waterford, $500,000. None of the defendants admitted any wrongdoing.

At the time, Mr. Spitzer’s office said: “The effect of the unlawful arrangement to boycott Bed, Bath & Beyond was to eliminate and suppress competition in the sale of products to consumers in New York and elsewhere.”