He demanded that the date be changed to the more favorable one he'd agreed upon with Nicholas. After internal discussion that involved Ruehle and others, Nicholas and Samueli in July 1999 "signed Broadcom corporate records fraudulently reflecting" the earlier date, the indictment alleges.
It was a move that would come back to bite them, according to the indictment.
After Broadcom terminated the engineer -- and his stock options -- in October 2000, his attorney presented Nicholas and Ruehle with a draft of a lawsuit that would have exposed the illegal backdating if made public, prosecutors say.
Nicholas met the engineer at an Orange County hotel, "pleaded with M.N. not to come forward with his allegations" and cut a deal to vest 85% of the options that had been canceled if he would keep the matter quiet.
"At the time of the meeting with Nicholas, this settlement offer was worth over $7 million to M.N.," the indictment says.
Nicholas also allegedly paid $1 million in June 2002 to buy the silence of another, unnamed Broadcom employee who was aware of his illegal drug activity, the other indictment unsealed Thursday alleges.
Ruehle's attorney, Marmaro, said his client relied on the advice of Broadcom's auditors in operating the stock option program. He characterized the backdating problems as accounting glitches with no intent to defraud shareholders or mislead financial analysts.
"This is a classic case of government overreaching," Marmaro said in a statement. "The government's indictment unsuccessfully attempts to transform a company's technical accounting error into criminal conduct."
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Claims of sex and drugs
In the drug indictment, Nicholas is alleged to have used death threats and payoffs to conceal his "unlawful conduct."
The indictment describes repeated drug purchases for Nicholas, which were sometimes disguised as "supplies" or "refreshments" on invoices.
"In or around 2001, in the lobby of Broadcom's offices . . . Nicholas directed a Broadcom employee to provide approximately $5,000 to $10,000 in cash to a drug courier in exchange for an envelope containing controlled substances," the indictment alleges.
The document also lists three properties described in previous Los Angeles Times stories about Nicholas' alleged indulgences in drugs and prostitutes:
