Broadcom co-founder Samueli leaves guilty plea in place

samueli was my prof at ucla. he is sharp as a tack; focused and was/is interested in teaching technology. putting him in jail is a waste of money and his time. let him pay $20M; calif could use the money and he could do better things for human kind than sit in a jail. leave jail for violent criminals...dont wast the court time...

Samueli should have fought. Backdating was a universal practice approved by everyone in the industry. Samueli's charge is simply that he responded positively to one email, and then later said he was not in charge of the decisionmaking. More to the point, the crime is level 4, punishible by 0-6 months, and almost always by probation. Carney is a notorious hanging judge, new to the Fed bench, trying to score points. His loose talk of 17 month sentences reflects the kind of thing the Miller case has brought in; judges wildly oversentencing. He should have gone to trial. This comes from the Bush Justice Dept. In a few months it could all be different.

Henry is a sincere, good, decent individual who got caught up in Nick''s BS (as we all did at one time or another). Henry should absolutely NOT go to jail. Nick however deserves everything he gets.... PS: The drug charges are totally valid!

I think samueli may be a great guy, never met him. But last time I checked, "goin along for the ride" is called an accessory and gets you in trouble. Samueli worked with nick far long enough to know the score. He may not have perpetrated the acts, but he knew. Check the original judge;s rejection. There is ample evidence samueli "signed off" on the back dating. It was illegal. He deserves to be punished, otherwise where is justice?

Professor Samueli, If you are reading this. You have much more for the US engineering community than a lot of undereducated corrupt VPs that I have seen in 20 years. I hope whatever happens you can come back to academia to teach. Now that VLSI industry is in trouble they just want to hang certain people. Without your DDS they would not be getting their broadband wireless at this low cost. So goes for your contribution to DSL design.

I agree with FormerBRCM. I knew Samueli when he was at an aerospace company. He was an engineer and college professor. I don't think he wanted to be a billionare, but he happened to meet Nicholas, who had boundless ambition, and he went along for the ride. Look at what it got him. But, again you can see that Samueli is taking the high road rather than switching pleas and refusing to work with prosecutors. Hopefully the judge will take that into account.

Samueli IS a great guy. I won't comment on Nick at all, but I steadfastly refuse to believe that Henry took part in any shenanigans. I never heard one single peep about Henry participating in anything but engineering reviews, ever. He was up to my time there always a humble and unassuming person, always interested in the well being of the engineering staff. He's an innocent geek. This is not a CEO from Wall Street who ripped off people. This is a CTO who developed the chips for most of those cable and DSL modems you all are reading this message with. 'nuff said.

I think what makes it so difficult to accept Samueli doing time for this crime is that he did not directly profit from it, although it can be argued that he and Broadcom derived a benefit from attracting better prospects with the stock-option offer). His contributions and standing in the community also lead many to say "what a shame." Unlike Nicholas, his alleged "partner in crime," Samueli seems like a great guy; therefore, it would appear that taking a chance on an appeal could operate in his favor, especially since he knows Carney's position.