Broadcom Corp. cofounder and former chief executive Henry Nicholas is set to stand trial for options backdating in April next year.
In a pretrial meeting Tuesday in Santa Ana, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney settled a dispute between Nicholas’ lawyers and federal prosecutors about which trial should come first,one dealing with backdated stock options and another involving drug charges.
Carney set a date for April 7, 2009, for the options trial and scheduled the drug case to be tried six months after the options case wraps up, according to a report from the Orange County Register’s Web site.
At the earliest, the drug case would go to trial in November next year.
The judge settled the dispute because the “stock options case is more vital to the public interest than the drug case,” Carney told the Register.
Carney said he expects the options trial to take six to eight weeks.
Federal prosecutors argued that the drug trial should go first because it appears to be relatively cut and dry, compared to the complex stock options charges that date back to 1999, the report showed.
Nicholas and former finance chief Bill Ruehle were charged with 21 counts of plotting to backdate options for employees brought on board at the Irvine chipmaker during Nicholas’ time as chief executive, mostly from 1998 until 2003.
Both pleaded not guilty to the options charges a few weeks ago.
Separately, Nicholas was charged with using and distributing illegal and prescription drugs and other unseemly behavior, including soliciting prostitutes and spiking executive’s drinks.
Ruehle isn’t charged in the drug indictment.
The judge’s decision to try the options case first is a boon for Nicholas’ and Ruehle’s lawyers, who told the judge a drug case could prejudice potential jurors.
Cofounder and former technology chief Henry Samueli pleaded guilty last week to one count of lying to federal investigators about his role in options backdating.
He struck a plea deal in which he would pay $12.2 million and serve three to five years of probation.
