BACKDATED STOCK OPTIONS
 

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP Now Investigating Stock Options Backdating Practices By Broadcom

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP is currently investigating stock options backdating practices at over 100 companies, including Broadcom.

Regarding Broadcom, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, "On July 14, the Irvine, Calif., chip maker said it expects to record additional non-cash stock-based compensation expense of more than $750 million, as it corrects accounting for past stock-option grants. The company believes that substantially all of that expense will be recorded in the years 2000-2003. On June 12, the company said it had been notified that it will receive an informal request from the staff of the SEC regarding its option granting practices. Broadcom said it had started an internal review May 18 amid media reports about options practices. On Sept. 8, the company said compensation expenses it records related to historical stock option grants will be at least double its previous estimate, "and could be substantially more," after additional accounting issues were identified. It said it has been informally contacted by the U.S. Attorney's Office of Central California.  Broadcom said on Sept. 19 that William J. Ruehle, who had served as CFO since 1997, "decided to accelerate his retirement as a result of" its internal options review.  On Dec. 18 the company approved the findings and recommendations of its audit committee's review of its stock options. Broadcom expects to file an amended annual report for 2005 and the first quarter of 2007. It added that the SEC told the company it has issued a formal order of investigation. The audit committee found each of the option grants made since May 2003 has complied with prevailing accounting rules and isn't subject to restatement.  On Jan. 23, 2007, Broadcom said in a filing that Henry T. Nicholas III, its co-founder, bears responsibility for much of the backdating that occurred. The company, in recording $2.24 billion in extra expenses, noted 68 instances in which it couldn’t find contemporaneous paperwork to document grant-approval meetings, and 18 cases when grant dates were selected after the fact.”

If you are a current stockholder in Broadcom and would like to learn about your legal rights in seeking to remedy improper options backdating at the company, please click here or call 800-287-8119 to contact our paralegal, Victoria Bird.  Our initial consultation and case assessment will be done at no charge or obligation to you.

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP is a leading force in bringing lawsuits on behalf of shareholders who own stock in corporations implicated in the rampant and ongoing stock options backdating scandal.  Led by attorneys Edward F. Haber and Michelle H. Blauner, our firm has already filed numerous cases, in both state and federal courts, concerning the improper backdating of stock options granted to officers, directors, and executives who appear to have used backdated stock options to create for themselves tens, or even hundreds, of millions of dollars in profit and unrealized gain at the direct expense of their corporations.

To learn more about our efforts targeting unlawful corporate stock options practices at corporations nationwide, please click here to view our main stock options backdating webpage, which contains detailed explanations of stock options, option backdating, and why option backdating can be illegal.  Also featured are complaints filed by our firm in other stock options backdating cases, as well as a full list of all the corporations we are currently investigating.