Citing prosecutorial misconduct, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney today dismissed securities fraud charges against the two remaining defendants in the Broadcom case. Judge Carney found that a prosecutor in the case improperly attempted to intimidate defendants and witnesses.
The Orange County Register reports that Judge Carney acquitted Broadcom’s former CFO, William Ruehle, and dismissed charges against Henry T. Nicholas III, the company’s co-founder. This follows his decision last week, discussed here, to throw out an earlier guilty plea by Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Samueli.
Prosecutors had charged Ruehle and Nicholas with participating in a conspiracy to inflate Broadcom’s earnings by failing to report the backdating of stock options granted to employees. Samueli had admitted lying to the SEC, the OC Register reports.
