Friday, December 10, 2010
Vitesse Finalizes Settlement With SEC
Camarillo-based Vitesse Semiconductor said of Friday that it has finalized a settlement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), over the SEC's investigations into the firm's historical stock options practices and accounting. According to Vitesse, it has agreed to pay $3.0M to the SEC, without admitting or denying wrongdoing, which will conclude the SEC's investigation of Vitesse. As part of the settlement, the firm also said that former executives Louis R. Tomasetta, Eugene F. Hovanec and Yatin Mody have agreed not to seek from Vitesse any future future indemnification or defense costs related to government actions.
The settlement puts to bed a long running drama for Vitesse, which first saw SEC scrutiny in April in of 2006, as the SEC started an aggressive campaign looking at stock options backdating at dozens of technology companies both in Silicon Valley, Southern California, and beyond. That investigation derailed numerous publicly traded companies, including Vitesse, which ended up terminating Tomasetta, Hovanec, and Mody due to their involvement with options grants; resulted in the firm being delisted from the NASDAQ; involved the firm in a complete restructuring of the company; spurred numerous board member changes; and ended up in the installation of a completely new executive team.