A jury was picked Thursday for the federal trial of former Broadcom chief executive officer William Ruehle, who faces charges in an alleged $2.2-billion stock option backdating scheme.
So opening statements are scheduled to begin around 9 a.m. today.
The trial, in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, is expected to last nine weeks.
Ruehle, along with Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, was indicted last year on charges of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. They allegedly engaged in a backdating scheme that resulted in Broadcom’s $2.- billion accounting restatement in 2007.
Nicholas goes to trial after Ruehle. He also faces separate drug charges.
Henry Samueli, Broadcom’s other co-founder, awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to one count of making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“There’s a big question of how juries are going to react to this kind of case, especially here in Southern California and Orange County,” Lawrence Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University School of Law, said of Ruehle’s trial.
“From the standpoint of the defense, they will do everything they can to characterize this as a highly technical offense without a real victim.”
