The Securities and Exchange Commission took its latest whack at a lawyer in the ongoing stock option backdating probes Tuesday, filing a civil suit against Lisa Berry, the former general counsel of two Silicon Valley companies with massive options problems.
The complaint alleges that Berry personally backdated options grants at KLA-Tencor Corp. from 1997 to 1999, and continued the practice when she left KLA to become general counsel at Juniper Networks Inc. While backdating has turned out to be a problem at dozens of tech companies, the Berry case is the first to allege a cross-pollination of companies with fraudulent practices.
