Trial Starts for Former Chief in Options-Backdating Case
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Gregory L. Reyes, the former chief executive of Brocade Communications, is accused of misleading investors by backdating stock option grants, among other things.
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(InfoWorld) - The former legal counsel for McAfee is facing federal charges of improperly backdating stock options at the security software company. Kent Roberts, 50, of Dallas, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on seven counts of fraud for improperly backdating options between 2000 and 2002, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. Roberts is charged with "devising a scheme to defraud by granting himself and others valuable in-the-money stock options while hiding the true nature and value of the stock option grants," the statement says. Roberts hid the fraud from the company, then known as Network Associates, its board, shareholders, auditors, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Roberts joins a small butÂ growing list of executivesÂ or former executives of companies charged in the U.S with improperly backdating stock options grants to make them more profitable for the recipients, but at the expense of shareholders. More than 100 U.S. companies are under investigation by the SEC, federal prosecutors, or through internal audits. According to the indictment, the Network Associates board granted Roberts the option to buy 20,000 shares of Network Associates' stock at the strike price of $29.62, which was the price at which the stock closed on Feb. 14, 2000. In late 2000, Roberts became concerned that his options were "underwater," that is, the $29.62 exercise price of the grant was more than the market price for stock. Roberts allegedly caused Network Associates' then-controller to change the grant date and exercise price in the computer system that recorded stock option grants. The grant date was changed to April 14, 2000, with a new exercise price of $19.75. Furthermore, Roberts implicated the then-controller in the improper backdating of other stock options for consultants to the company. Roberts initiated an investigation in 2002 and recommended that the controller be removed from his position. Roberts also participated in a conference call with the SEC at the time, in which he implicated the controller. All the while, the indictment says, Roberts never mentioned that the controller backdated his options, too. The government also says that Roberts altered board meeting minutes to change the date on which options were granted to the company's then-CEO and chairman. He allegedly changed the options date from Jan. 15, 2002, when the stock closed at $27.19, to Jan. 16, when it closed at only $25.43. The greater the difference between the lower options price and the higher market price when the executive exercises the option, the greater the profit. Roberts is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday before Federal Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero in San Francisco. Roberts' attorney Neal Stephens could not be reached for comment.
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Federal prosecutors are strongly  considering criminal charges against former executives of  Broadcom Corp., Apple Inc., and KLA-Tencor Corp., related to  the backdating of stock options, the Wall Street Journal  reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the situation.
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Brocade Communications Systems  Inc's  former chief was sentenced on Wednesday to 21  months in prison for backdating stock-option grants in a  scandal that has ensnared scores of U.S. companies and led to  billions of dollars of restatements.
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U.S. regulators sued the former general counsel of Juniper Networks and KLA-Tencor, making her the first person targeted for fraudulently backdating stock options at more than one company.
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A former Brocade Communications Systems Inc. executive who was convicted in a landmark stock options case won't get a new trial, despite a key prosecution witness recanting parts of her testimony, a judge ruled Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - A civil lawsuit accusing Henry Nicholas III, the former president and CEO of Broadcom Corp., of mistreating employees, using illegal drugs and paying for prostitutes, has reportedly caught the attention of U.S. law enforcement officials investigating stock options backdating at the company. Nicholas, who resigned from Broadcom in January 2003, is the target of a civil lawsuit brought by cousins Kenji and Scott Kato, both former employees of Nicholas. The lawsuit, filed in November in Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles, alleges that Nicholas and his lawyers reneged on a settlement for wrongful termination and other claims. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, which is investigating stock options backdating at Broadcom, has begun looking into the Katos' claims. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed Kenji Kato in April, and this week, it began interviewing other Nicholas employees, the news report said. Kenji Kato's lawyer, Joseph Kar, declined to comment on the U.S. Attorney's interest in the case. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the investigation. Broadcom, a chip maker for communications devices, announced in January it would take a $2.24 billion charge for stock options backdating. Broadcom said it found options for 232.9 million shares of company stock that had been backdated, with 9.7 million of those shares going to executive officers. Kenji Kato, who describes himself in court documents as a former personal assistant of Nicholas', said Nicholas and his lawyers offered him a settlement of more than US$2.9 million in November, then withdrew it. Kato had accused Nicholas of wrongful termination, breach of contract and infliction of emotional distress, among other things. Kenji Kato worked for Nicholas from October 1999 to April 2006, and during much of that time, Nicholas threw wild parties and regularly used illegal drugs such as cocaine, according to a court filing from May. While at Broadcom, Nicholas hired prostitutes for clients and for himself, and he spiked customer drinks with powdered ecstasy pills to lower their "inhibitions and guard," Kato said in the filing. Nicholas' lawyer, Steven Silverstein, didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the lawsuit. But in court documents, Nicholas' lawyers deny the allegations and accuse Kato of attempting to extort money from Nicholas. Kato signed a confidentiality agreement when working for Nicholas, according to documents filed by Level 7 LLC and The Management Company LLC, two companies owned by Nicholas. Kato has threatened to make public "certain sensitive private alleged facts ... which he had expressly promised to keep private," the Level 7 court documents say. "Kato's wrongful conduct by issuing these threats ... will cause great and irreparable injury to plaintiffs." Nicholas regularly yelled at employees, and he demanded that Kenji Kato carry a bag with illegal drugs for him, according to Kenji Kato's filing. Nicholas also demanded that Kato use drugs along with him, Kato said. "I was regularly exposed to ... a high degree of debauchery while working for Nick," he said in his filing. "The first time I used cocaine was when Nick shoved a tiny spoon up my nose because I was falling asleep, while he was talking to me. Over time, I got sucked into his extreme lifestyle." By the end of Kato's employment, Nicholas was using "large quantities" of illegal drugs, including cocaine and heroin, and had withdrawn from his friends and family, according to Kato's May filing. Nicholas had stopped paying Kato, although he still demanded work from him, and when Kato walked out, Nicholas owed him $150,000 in back pay, the court documents say. Nicholas had promised Kato employee benefits and Broadcom stock options, but he never delivered, according to Kato's filing.
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October 06, 2004 - The opening of a trial related to Oracle&#39;s takeover bid of PeopleSoft featured the revelation that CEO Craig Conway was fired last week for making misleading statements about PeopleSoft&#39;s sales.
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SAN FRANCISCO, June 18 -- Gregory L. Reyes, the former chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems, either masterminded a stock-option backdating scheme designed to defraud investors or fell victim to murky accounting laws and heightened public scrutiny of corporate accounting errors, lawyers...
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TechWeb - Ryan Brant, the former chief executive of video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software, pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminal charges related to backdating of stock options.
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The first criminal trial to involve former staff of disgraced energy firm Enron is under way in Texas, with two Enron staff and four bankers in the dock.
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A former general counsel at Monster Worldwide Inc.  pleaded guilty on Thursday to criminal charges related to stock options backdating.
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InfoWorld - The practice of manipulating stock options grants to make them more favorable has come back to haunt yet another round of high-tech executives. A former Monster Worldwide Inc. executive is expected to agree to a plea deal in New York Thursday, just a day after the founder of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. pleaded guilty to a state felony related to backdating.
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The trials of former WorldCom chairman Bernard J. Ebbers and former Tyco chairman L. Dennis Kozlowski get underway this week, beginning a new round of courtroom confrontations over events that helped write the emphatic end to last decade's investment boom.
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Apple Inc  Chief Executive  Steve Jobs has been asked by U.S. securities regulators to give  a deposition in a stock options backdating lawsuit against the  company's former general counsel, Bloomberg reported on  Thursday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
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Former officials of Japanese Internet company Livedoor stood trial Friday on charges of violating stock regulations in the first of several unfolding cases that have raised questions about the country&#039;s checks on business ventures.
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Opening the fraud trial against former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers, a prosecutor argued that Mr. Ebbers told "lie after lie" to cover up the company's losses.