REGULATION - Guilty plea expected in Broadcom options - Nancy Tullos, a former executive, will also work with investigators looking into alleged backdating, sources say.

As part of the deal, former Broadcom human-relations chief Nancy Tullos has agreed to cooperate with investigators examining allegations that top Broadcom executives backdated stock options to secretly benefit employees, according to three people with knowledge of the probe.

Tullos' attorneys declined to comment. Tullos, 56, who has homes in Malibu and Dana Point, has declined requests to be interviewed.

The plea agreement could come as early as this week, according to the people close to the case. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement hasn't yet been filed.

In January, Broadcom reduced previous financial results by $2.2 billion. That was the largest accounting correction among the approximately 200 corporations the Securities and Exchange Commission has said it investigated for allegedly misdating stock option grants to make them more valuable.

Options are the right to buy shares at a set price in the future.

The Broadcom case is significant not only because of the $2.2-billion adjustment but because of the prominence of the firm's founders, Orange County billionaires Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III.

Samueli, Broadcom's chairman, owns the Anaheim Ducks hockey team and has become one of Southern California's biggest philanthropists. His attorneys have declined to comment on the investigation.

Nicholas, a major philanthropist as well, left Broadcom in 2003. Last year, his former administrative assistant Kenji Kato filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that Nicholas required him to oversee supplies of cocaine and other drugs, pay prostitutes from a "petty cash" fund and conceal these activities from his wife and others.

Nicholas' lawyer called the allegations "crazy" and contended that the civil suit was a $9-million extortion scheme. The charges have been sent to arbitration proceedings, which have yet to conclude.

Robert Gunther, the former chief operating officer for Nicholas' holding company, pleaded not guilty last week to a felony charge of money laundering. The charge grew out of the federal Broadcom investigation.