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Broadcom chief on fraud charges
Bill Condie06.06.08
Jurors will hear lurid tales of drug parties and prostitution in the latest corporate scandal to hit the US courts.
Former Broadcom chief executive Henry Nicholas III is charged with fraud, conspiracy and drug offences.
The founder of the Californian chipmaker is accused of spiking customers' drinks with ecstasy, taking cocaine and directing a criminal stockoptions backdating conspiracy that cost the firm $2.2 billion (£1.1 billion).
Former finance chief William Ruehle has been charged with receiving millions of dollars of backdated options.
Nicholas is said to have stocked a warehouse with drugs used to entertain customers at parties with prostitutes and on trips in the company jet.
A pilot who flew Nicholas and friends to Las Vegas in 2001 says he once had to wear an oxygen mask to avoid marijuana smoke in the cockpit.
