A Santa Ana judge said Monday he’s set to delay the trial of cofounder and former Broadcom Corp. chief executive Henry Nicholas until next year.
Judge Cormac Carney granted a motion to push back the trial of Nicholas, who’s set to face fraud charges, until February 2010. The trial originally was slated to begin in April.
The date was moved to ensure that his co-defendant, former Broadcom finance chief William Ruehle, goes to trial first.
The two were initially set to be tried for federal fraud charges together.
In June, they were named as co-conspirators in an indictment that alleged a scheme to backdate stock options.
Ruehle’s trial, originally slated for July, was pushed back until October.
Carney said Nicholas’ trial is likely to start at least a month after Ruehle’s ends.
Both pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of accounting and securities fraud after the Irvine chipmaker reported a $2.2 million bill to fix backdated stock options.
Nicholas is set to stand trial separately for drug charges after the fraud trial.
He stepped down as CEO in 2003. Ruehle left in 2006.
