A familiar face circulated around Broadcom Corp.’s booth at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month.
Cofounder and former technology chief Henry Samueli chatted with customers in suits at the yearly trade show.
It was one of a handful of appearances Samueli’s been making on behalf of the Irvine-based chipmaker since he stepped down as chairman and chief technology officer early last year amid legal issues over stock options.
In December, Samueli presented a lengthy review of Broadcom’s research and development strategy to analysts and investors.
“I can introduce myself,Henry Samueli, cofounder of Broadcom,” he told the group. “And I have a pretty simple role at Broadcom. My job description is really one sentence long. It is to promote a culture of engineering excellence.”
When Samueli resigned his titles, Broadcom said he was set to continue as a non-officer employee reporting to Chief Executive Scott McGregor.
He reports to McGregor in a “technology advisory capacity,” company spokesman Bill Blanning said.
Samueli no longer is involved with financial reporting or corporate governance. Otherwise, his work doesn’t appear to have changed much since he stepped down in May after being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission over stock option grants.
“As far as coming to the office, Henry’s work is no different than it was before,” said a person familiar with the company. “He comes to work on a daily basis, in the same office, with the same hectic travel schedule. Nothing from that standpoint has changed.”
Samueli is appealing a judge’s rejection of a plea deal with federal prosecutors that would spare him prison for his role in options backdating.
In June, he pleaded guilty to one felony count of lying to SEC investigators about options backdating at Broadcom. Under the plea deal, Samueli was to pay $12 million to the federal government, a $250,000 fine and to get three to five years of probation.
In September, a federal judge in Santa Ana rejected the deal, calling it too lenient and premature with criminal trials set this year for cofounder and former chief executive Henry Nicholas and former financial chief William Ruehle.
The SEC’s civil suit against Samueli is on hold until later this year.
Samueli’s continued work at Broadcom reflects a general perception,and the company’s own finding,that he played a passing role in the granting of stock options.
Some are more critical, contending Samueli was the other half of a two-person options committee with Nicholas and is getting off easy.
Broadcom’s 2007 restatement of past earnings with $2.2 billion in charges to fix misdated options was the largest of any company involved in backdating.
The company’s own probe laid most of the blame on Nicholas and Ruehle.
Broadcom has distanced itself from Nicholas, who left in 2003 and also faces drug charges and allegations of wild behavior.
Samueli still is revered at Broadcom and in the industry as an engineering genius.
“He is an icon of the engineering organizations at Broadcom, which are looking up to him for guidance,” said the source familiar with the company. “He participates in reviews of new designs and technology.”
Public perception, too, seems to cut Samueli slack.
He and wife Susan are among the county’s top philanthropists, having given some $200 million to causes in education, healthcare, religion and the arts.
