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To: Jeffrey Beckman who wrote (9448)1/18/2008 10:05:18 PM
From: caly  Respond to of 13724
 
"Her declaration came in a TV interview taped hours after the homemaking diva was sentenced to five months in prison and two years' probation Friday for lying to investigators about her sale of ImClone Systems stock in late 2001.

Federal Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum also ordered Stewart to serve five months of home confinement after her release and fined the lifestyle expert $30,000."

Good point. Ok, I'll take a $500,000 fine and 18 months. I strongly suspect her sentence may tied to how much she rolled on the CEO, though, who has yet to even be indicted.



To: Jeffrey Beckman who wrote (9448)1/28/2008 2:42:55 PM
From: caly  Respond to of 13724
 
They originally scheduled sentencing on MLK holiday, so it happened today. 6 months and $1 million fine.

siliconvalley.com

Former SafeNet CFO sentenced in options backdating probe

Associated Press

Article Launched: 01/28/2008 10:45:23 AM PST

NEW YORK - The former chief financial officer of network security products maker SafeNet Inc. was sentenced Monday to six months in prison and fined $1 million on securities fraud charges in the backdating of millions of dollars of employee stock options grants.

The judge told Carole Argo she was deserving of leniency because of her charitable deeds and because her crimes were not nearly as serious as those committed in some of the more spectacular financial frauds of the past decade. He also said a stern message was being sent with the fine.

Before she was sentenced, Argo, 46, of Baltimore, sobbed and said: "My apologies to everyone who was harmed by this." The courtroom was packed with her family, friends and a dozen employees of SafeNet, including its president and chief lawyer.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said federal sentencing guidelines in the case called for a prison term of between nine and 10 years. The federal probation office had recommended a sentence of nearly five years.

Paul Engelmayer, her lawyer, said she had already given back $236,000 in profits. He said it was unlikely she could afford the $1 million fine.

In October, Argo pleaded guilty to securities fraud, admitting that she backdated millions of dollars worth of employee stock option grants at SafeNet.

Federal prosecutors said she conspired with others to routinely backdate options grants so that they appeared to have been issued when SafeNet's stock price was at a periodic low point.

The practice at SafeNet and other companies resulted in a series of federal indictments involving the backdating of options, awards which were guaranteed to be exercised at favorable prices.

As a result, Argo and others could use the options as "free" compensation that did not reduce the company's earnings, prosecutors said.

The government said backdating at the company occurred between 2000 and 2006. In October 2006, the company's top officers, including its president, chief operating officer and Argo, resigned.