The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has voluntarily dropped its civil case against four former executives of Broadcom Corp., including the former general counsel. The move came one week after a federal judge said there were “serious problems” with the charges.
It was the latest setback in the U.S. government’s pursuit of securities fraud tied to stock options backdating at Broadcom. On Dec. 15, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney dismissed criminal charges against Broadcom co-founder Henry Nicholas and William Ruehle, the former chief financial officer, based in large part on prosecutorial misconduct. The judge also dismissed the SEC’s related complaint but gave the commission the option to amend the charges.
