Broadcom stock options saga continues with subpoena, interrogations

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- 5/2/2007

The stock options saga continues at communications chip provider Broadcom Corp.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company announced this week that it has recently been subpoenaed for documents related to its stock option granting history, and that a number of its present and former employees are subject to civil or criminal sanctions for their involvement in the fraudulent backdating of options.

According to a filing Broadcom made yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company has recently provided documents pursuant to grand jury subpoenas as well as other stock options-related documents requested by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Many of the documents provided, the company said, had previously been provided to the SEC in response to earlier requests for information.

In addition, Broadcom disclosed that the U.S. Attorney's Office has begun to interview present and former Broadcom employees as part of its investigation into the company's stock options granting history. Broadcom said that the interviews could result in civil or criminal sanctions against its unnamed former officers, directors and employees, or against the company itself.

Broadcom has been one of the companies hardest hit by the U.S. government's crackdown on the illegal backdating of stock options in the tech industry. In January, Broadcom wrapped a months-long internal probe into its stock option granting practices and filed restated financial reports with the SEC that included a whopping $2.2 billion in compensation charges to pay for illegally backdated stock options discovered in its investigation. 

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