There could be life after options for Henry Samueli.

The cofounder, former chairman and ex-technology chief of Broadcom Corp. could end up regaining standing as one of the county’s top businesspeople and philanthropists, observers said last week.

“My feeling is that people are going to say that it was a minor thing,” said Henry Pontell, a criminology professor at the University of California, Irvine, where the engineering school is named for Samueli.

Reaction to Samueli’s plea deal with federal prosecutors this week differed from the indictment earlier this month of Broadcom cofounder and former chief executive Henry “Nick” Nicholas.

Sympathy is more common for Samueli, a brainy, low-key former engineering professor known for big donations to UC Irvine and other causes and for his love of hockey and ownership of the Anaheim Ducks.

Samueli “has done much more good compared to anything that could have happened in court,” said Shalom Elcott, chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Orange County and a personal friend of Henry and Susan Samueli since the early 1980s. “It’s not just the ability to write a check—it’s when you look back at these people’s lives and see what they’ve done here—that’s the measure.”

Some draw parallels to Martha Stewart, who was convicted in 2003 of lying to investigators about stock sales. After spending five months in prison in 2004, Stewart was able to resume most of her business dealings with little fallout on her public persona.

For now, Samueli’s image is taking a beating. On Monday, he agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of lying to federal investigators about his role in granting stock options at Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom.

Under the terms of the initial plea deal, he’s set to pay $12.2 million in fines, and, unlike Stewart, avoid prison. He’s likely to see three to five years of probation.

Samueli dodged a bullet, legal experts said.

“This looks like he got an extremely favorable disposition,” said Lawrence Rosenthal, a Chapman University law professor and former federal prosecutor in Chicago. “Either they couldn’t get enough on him or he isn’t a co-schemer.”
Nicholas, who’s charged with several counts of fraud as well as drug charges, faces the prospect of prison.

The Samueli plea deal doesn’t require him to cooperate with federal prosecutors, another coup for him and his lawyers, according to Rosenthal.

“That’s pretty unusual,” he said. “You want to at least have the option to call on Samueli. I’m frankly surprised they cut him a probation deal without requiring him to testify.”