The SEC filed fraud charges Aug. 28 against Lisa Berry for misconduct during separate stints as general counsel for KLA-Tencor Corp. and Juniper Networks Inc. The complaint alleges Berry backdated stock option grants from 1997 to 2003, causing both companies to conceal hundreds of millions of dollars in employee and executive stock option compensation expenses.

Berry served as GC for San Jose, Calif.-based semiconductor manufacturer KLA-Tencor in 1997. The SEC alleges she “devised the improper backdating scheme” while in this position. In fiscal years 1998 and 1999, KLA overstated its net income by as much as 47 percent. The SEC charged KLA's former CEO Kenneth Schroeder with backdating in July.

In June 1999, Berry began working for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based tech company Juniper Networks, using similar backdating processes. The SEC alleges she wrote up minutes of fictitious stock option committee meetings and forged signatures to document false grant dates. Late last year, Juniper restated nearly $900 million in expenses due to improper accounting of options between June 1999 and December 2003.

The SEC also announced Aug. 28 it had settled separately with Juniper, which consented to a permanent injunction against future violations of antifraud, reporting, books-and-records and internal control provisions of federal securities laws.

In a statement, Juniper's Chairman and CEO Scott Kriens said, “We are pleased to conclude this matter with the SEC and to continue our intense focus on execution and the growth of Juniper Networks.”