Four directors of Canadian company Research in Motion have agreed to settle a probe by Canadian regulators over the backdating of stock options by paying a combined $92 million. The settling individuals include the company’s joint CEOs, its president, its CFO, and other board members.
The Register reports that the $92 million is broken down as follows: $38.3 million to RIM to repay the benefits of backdated or repriced options; $44.8 million to cover RIM’s costs in investigating and sorting out the options issue; and $9.1 million to the Ontario Securities Commission to cover the costs of its investigation.
In addition, the company’s CFO is banned from sitting on any Canadian board for five years, and its VP of Finance is banned from holding directorships until he completes a course on the duties of directors of public companies.
The amount of the settlement is enormous for Canada. The Canadian Securities Administrators announced last week that during all of calendar year 2008, CSA members imposed monetary sanctions and orders towards costs totaling just $14 million.
