SAN FRANCISCO — The government’s shining successes in its war against stock option backdating came under scrutiny Tuesday as the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reviewed the convictions of two former Brocade Communications executives.
Former Solicitor General Seth Waxman, now a Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partner, told the three-judge panel that his client, deposed CEO Gregory Reyes, was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct. Northern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Reeves shouldn’t have asserted in his closing that the entire Brocade finance department was ignorant of backdating by Reyes, Waxman said. This contention bolstered the idea that Reyes intended to commit fraud, he added.
