Ducks Owner going to jail.

Looks like the Ducks owner could heading to the Crowbar hotel.

Judge rejects plea deal for Broadcom's Samueli
By AMY TAXIN -- SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge Monday rejected a plea deal that had called for Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli to get probation rather than prison for his role in a stock options backdating case that led to the largest corporate writedown of its kind.

U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote that the deal calling for five years probation and $12 million in payments by Samueli would erode the public's trust in the judicial system.

"The court cannot accept a plea agreement that gives the impression that justice is for sale," Carney wrote.

Samueli has pleaded guilty under the plea agreement to lying to investigators for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Broadcom, an Irvine, Calif.-based telecommunications chip maker, was ultimately forced to write down $2.2 billion in profits after the options backdating was uncovered.

Prosecutors and Samueli asked the judge for time to renegotiate their plea deal or to allow Samueli to withdraw from the agreement. Carney set another hearing for Sept. 29.

Samueli, the owner of the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, struck the plea deal with prosecutors this year in a larger criminal probe into stock-option backdating at Broadcom.

Under the agreement, Samueli would have avoided prison time and would not have been required to help prosecutors build their cases against Broadcom's former chief financial officer, William J. Ruehle, or company co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, who are accused of conspiracy and securities fraud. Nicholas also faces drug-related charges, including that he slipped ecstasy into the drinks of business associates.

Nicholas and Ruehle have pleaded not guilty and are free on bail.

Under federal law, the maximum fine for the offense acknowledged by Samueli is $250,000. His plea deal, however, called for an additional payment of $12 million that prosecutors said was intended to show the seriousness of his offense.

Carney said the payment was unprecedented and the "staggering sum of money" made it appear that Samueli was trying to buy his way out of prison without cooperating with federal investigators.

"No sentence can be based on the amount of money a defendant is willing and able to pay," the judge wrote.

Carney also wrote that the deal was too lenient compared with the cases against Nicholas and Ruehle, whose sentences could add up to more than 300 years if they are convicted.

A total of 21 executives have been brought up on criminal charges related to stock options backdating.

While a number of those charged have pleaded guilty, only two have gone to trial — Greg Reyes and Stephanie Jensen, the former CEO and human resources chief for networking equipment maker Brocade Communications Systems Inc. They were both found guilty.

Reyes received the harshest sentences to date: He was sentenced in January to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay a $15 million fine. Reyes is appealing the verdict. Jensen was ordered to serve four months in prison pay $1.25 million. She is also appealing.

Backdating involves retroactively setting a stock option's exercise price to a low point in the stock's value, boosting the profits that are attained when the shares are sold. It is legal when properly accounted for, but if companies fail to properly disclose the move, profits can be overstated and taxes underpaid.