The court of appeals affirmed a district court judgment. The court held that a securities fraud defendant failed to demonstrate prosecutorial misconduct where evidence disputed by the defendant on appeal was relevant and admissible at trial, the prosecution attempted to elicit no false inferences from the evidence, and the jury was properly instructed as to the required elements of the crimes charged.
Gregory Reyes was the former chief executive officer and board chairman of Brocade Communications. He resigned after the board investigated some of Brocade’s accounting practices with respect to the granting of stock options to new employees. Pursuant to then-applicable law, it was not unlawful at the time for stock options to be backdated, so long as the benefit to Brocade employees was properly recorded on the company’s financial records. Here, however, it appeared that proper recording was not carried out.
