Ex-CFO's SEC Deal Fails
Internal infighting at the Securities and Exchange Commission has scuttled a proposed settlement in an options backdating case against former Brocade Communications CFO Michael Byrd.
The SEC’s accounting division objected to the million-dollar deal because it didn’t bar Byrd from employment as an accountant at other public companies, the Recorder reports. On Friday, the SEC filed a civil suit against Byrd claiming he failed to stop practices that hid stock-options backdating from investors.
Byrd cooperated in the case against Brocade ex-CEO Gregory Reyes, who was convicted last month of backdating stock options. Byrd’s lawyer, John Potter of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, says the SEC complaint is “at variance with the voluminous evidence” showing Byrd was not aware of backdating.
(Updated 12:29 p.m. CST to indicate Michael Byrd is Brocade’s former CEO.)
