This is the government's second series of charges filed against former executives in connection with options backdating.
The mutterings about disproportionate punishment are even louder in options backdating, the other corporate scandal of the moment.
Last December Broadcom CFO William Ruehle stood trial for charges on 21 counts of options backdating and securities fraud.
Let us switch gears to another topic: Apple and its options backdating problem.
The only cloud over Apple is that is the darn options backdating issue.
Come to think of it, Apple, which finds itself distracted by an options backdating scandal, should fire Sonsini, too.
Kreinberg is the former CFO at Comverse Technology , and he has agreed to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges related to options backdating.
But there's a new kind of fiduciary misconduct floating around: options backdating.
The first of those indictments, which accuses Nicholas of 21 federal charges of options backdating, is scheduled to go to trial in February.
Former CEO Greg Reyes faces criminal charges for options backdating.
The charges against Mr Reyes, a former boss of Brocade Communications Systems, represented the first criminal prosecution to result from the options backdating scandal that made headlines last year.
ECONOMIST: A conviction for backdating options may be the first of many
Almost from its inception, the federal government's options backdating case against executives of Broadcom Corp. reeked of cheap melodrama more than it gleamed with truth-seeking about corporate accounting and corporate pay.
With criminal charges now lodged in two high-profile options backdating cases, one on each coast, the U.S. Department of Justice is sending a clear signal to top company executives: Shape up now.
Kreinberg is the former CFO at Comverse Technology (nasdaq: CMVT - news - people ), and he has agreed to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges related to options backdating.
This request for dismissal came a few weeks after judge Carney threw out charges on 21 counts of options backdating and securities fraud against Nicholas and former Broadcom chief financial officer William Ruehle.
Since being indicted in 2008, Nicholas, who faced both a civil and a criminal case (21 federal charges of options backdating plus 4 counts of drug conspiracy), has only had a handful of lawyers represent him (not counting attorneys enlisted to deal with his messy divorce).
This is seen as a test case for the dozens of other executives embroiled in the options-backdating scandal.
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But each is publicly traded and, alas, distracted as a result of being public: Apple by an options-backdating mess, Dell by apparent accounting misstatements and HP by recent boardroom machinations worthy of Shakespeare.
Kobi Alexander, the former boss of Comverse Technology, is still fighting extradition from Namibia, to which he fled in 2006 following accusations of improper options-backdating. (There has been speculation that he is actually now in Switzerland.) It would not come as a complete surprise if Mr Fuld, a fan of big-game hunting, decided that now is the perfect time for an extended Namibian safari.
Securities law violations are not the only potential problems with backdating options grants.
The individuals caught hiding debt from shareholders, backdating options, evading taxes and whatever the next big corporate scandal will be, are not bigger and better than the system.
Another day, another top executive nailed for backdating options.
The likeliest explanation for this popularity is that options are highly effective in attracting employees to tech firms, that talent is in short supply, and that backdating makes options more valuable.
ECONOMIST: A conviction for backdating options may be the first of many
His prosecutor, Andrew Stolper (Santa Ana, CA), brought him up on charges for backdating stock options.
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And then he was on the board of UnitedHealth from the late 1990s onwards when the company was backdating stock options.
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In both cases, prosecutors allege acts by top executives that were hidden from board scrutiny and the widespread backdating of options grants.
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