Ex-McAfee GC indicted in share options scandal
Kent Roberts, the former general counsel of software giant McAfee, has been charged with fraud, becoming the third senior in-house lawyer to be indicted this year for misconduct relating to backdated share options. Roberts - who was accused of devising "a scheme to defraud by granting himself and others valuable in-the-money stock option grants" in a statement by the US Department of Justice - has been charged with seven counts of fraud between 2000 and 2002.
March 01, 2007 at 07:38 AM
2 minute read
Kent Roberts, the former general counsel of software giant McAfee, has been charged with fraud, becoming the third senior in-house lawyer to be indicted this year for misconduct relating to backdated share options.
Roberts – who was accused of devising "a scheme to defraud by granting himself and others valuable in-the-money stock option grants" in a statement by the US Department of Justice – has been charged with seven counts of fraud between 2000 and 2002.
The scandal came to light when Roberts was fired in May 2006 after an internal probe highlighted him as an active participant in troubling accounting practices.
Roberts joined McAfee – then known as Network Associates – in 1998 and became general counsel in 2001. He has been charged with mail fraud, wire fraud and making false filings to the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Roberts could face fines worth more than $10m (£5.1m) and up to 20 years in jail.
Last month Monster's ex-general counsel, Myron Olesnyckyj, pleaded guilty to criminal charges involving stock-option backdating, while former Comverse general counsel William Sorin in January became the first general counsel to plead guilty to fraud charges related to the backdating scandal and faces fines of $3m (£1.5m).
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