The 48 year-old billionaire and Broadcom Co-founder, Henry T. Nicholas pleaded not guilty to 25 federal counts in two indictments for drug offences and securities fraud charges. The former Broadcom CFO, William J. Ruehle, also pleaded not guilty on 21 charges of securities fraud. The trial date has been set for July 29th and both men are free on Bail. Apparently neither Ruehle or Nicholas made a statement to the media.
Broadcom makes Microprocessors for mobile phones and mobile comptres and the company was famously forced to chalk down it's SEC filings by a record $2.2 billion.
Nicholas served as CEO of Broadcom until he resigned due to the options scandal in 2003. If convicted Nicholas could be going away for a little while. The drug charges—spiking his guests drinks with ecstacy— could land him in prison for up to 20 years, but the securities fraud sentences are a bit more serious, for allegedly backdating stock options etc, could add another 340 years to his sentence. That means if sent to prison he'll may not be out until 2,368 unless of course, he is released earlier for good behavior.