Legal News

Samueli takes the stand in Broadcom case

By Richard Binder

Henry Samueli's two days of testimony in the Broadcom case revealed that he said he was never told the company's process for granting stock options to employees was improper or illegal. He also admitted to not telling the truth when he told the SEC he wasn't involved in the options-granting process.

Samueli went on to say he felt pressured by federal prosecutor Andrew Stolper to cooperate with the government. He accused Stolper of leaking details of Samueli's February 2007 grand jury appearance to the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.  U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney ordered Stolper out of the courtroom during Samueli's testimony.

Options backdating itself is not illegal, but must be reported to shareholders. The Irvine chip manufacturer captured headlines in 2007 when the company restated earnings by $2.2 billion to account for backdated options that weren't reported.

For more details about the past two days of testimony, click these.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on December 09, 2009 (boomark / email).