backdating

Lawyers nix champagne amid popped bubble

Owen Thomas · 12/05/08 02:20PM

It may be time to put a cork in Silicon Valley's most famous law firm. Wilson Sonsini is no longer celebrating its new attorneys with champagne. That trimmed perk is just the beginning of its woes.

Apple's former top lawyer settles options-backdating case for $2.2 million

Jackson West · 08/14/08 03:40PM

Nancy Heinen, former general counsel for Apple, has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She neither admits nor denies wrongdoing over charges that she forged board documents to backdate executive stock options — instead, she gets to avoid a trial. Heinen also agrees to pay $2.2 million and is barred from serving as an officer of a public company or practicing law before the SEC for five years. Who will sculpt a bust wreathed with laurels in the honor of a woman who so courageously fell on her sword for tyrant CEO Steve Jobs? [WSJ]

Steve Jobs accused of fraud in class-action suit

Jackson West · 07/02/08 04:00PM

Last Friday, shareholder plaintiffs filed suit against San Jose District Court against Apple CEO Steve Jobs, former CFO Fred Anderson, ex-general counsel Nancy Heinen, and members of the company's board of directors looking to reclaim the $7 billion in lost stock value when the company restated its financials in the wake of a — let's say it — hopelessly boring stock-option scandal that takedown-hungry journalists cared about far more than their readers. Let's be real: If anyone really cared about Jobs's fudging of stock-options grant dates, would it have taken so long to drum up some outraged shareholders? This smells of bored lawyers. The old-news complaint:

Henry Nicholas pleads not guilty on fraud and drug charges

Jackson West · 06/17/08 02:00AM

Nevermind the multiple witnesses to Broadcom co-founder Henry Nicholas' drug and prostitute habit. Nevermind the $2 billion restatement of earnings by Broadcom over backdated stock options. Dr. Henry T. Nicholas, still worth $2 billion himself while staying at a $60,000 plus substance abuse treatment clinic in Malibu under bond has plead not guilty to the charges listed in various federal indictments. A jury trial will commence on July 29th, with Nicholas joining co-founder Henry Samueli, former CFO William Ruehle and general counsel David Dull as defendants possibly taking the stand to describe their logical actions as sober and conscientious executives just doing their fiduciary duty to shareholders. I hate to try people outside the judicial system, but seriously, does anyone see any consequence beyond the lightest "club fed" sentence for these guys if found guilty?

Former Monster president charged with winkling $13.5 million from shareholders

Nicholas Carlson · 05/01/08 12:40PM

Federal prosecutors allege former Monster.com president and COO James Treacy bolstered the value of his company stock options through illegal backdating, which is when executives retroactively fix the books so it looks like they were granted company shares at a lower value than where they actually traed, increasing their take when they sell. Treacy received a total of $23 million exercising his company stock options but about $13.5 million came from "the in-the-money portion of backdated option grants," prosecutors allege. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed seperate charges against Treacy. "Mr. Treacy is completely innocent of these charges and looks forward to being vindicated at trial," his lawyer told the WSJ. And really, how can you not trust a mug like his?

Google discloses ex-Pixar CFO's legal trouble — but Disney doesn't

Owen Thomas · 04/28/08 05:40PM

The stock-options backdating scandal, which bored Silicon Valley the day the SEC first announced its investigations, continues. The latest to disclose a brush with the law: Google. Google has not been accused of misleading investors by moving up the grant date of stock options, making them more profitable for the executives who received them. But Google board member Ann Mather, the former CFO of animation studio Pixar, has, and the SEC is now initiating legal proceedings against her.

One more dead: KLA's founder-chairman is the latest backdating casualty

Nick Douglas · 10/17/06 10:51AM

The founder and chairman of semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor retired today over a stock option backdating scandal. Kenneth Levy (pictured) had been with the company for over 20 years. KLA will re-price backdated options that he and other KLA executives hold. The Wall Street Journal notes that a May article in that paper sparked the options probe.

Out of options: Dozens of companies could lose their CEOs — but not Apple

Nick Douglas · 10/13/06 08:25PM
  • First, a refresher: Backdating stock options really means giving an investor stock options below the current stock price, thus making them immediately worth money (as the recipient could buy stock at the low price and immediately sell it for a profit). Companies do this by pretending the stocks were given earlier when the stock was at the lower price. It's illegal if documents are forged, the company doesn't tell shareholders, or the company doesn't properly reduce reported earnings in its financial statements or taxes. [University of Iowa]

Even the dead cheat at stock options

Nick Douglas · 09/22/06 10:41AM

Cablevision Systems Corp., the fifth-largest U.S. cable-television provider, awarded stock options to a dead executive in 1999, then backdated them to give the illusion they were granted when he was alive.

Israel, yeah, that's a safe place to run right now

Nick Douglas · 08/21/06 12:47PM

Oh, the move the New York Times is alluding to is a stock options backdating scandal, whereby ex-Comverse head Jacob Alexander allegedly manipulated his stock options illegally in America, netting himself tens of millions of dollars.