Maxim Integrated is hit with fraud charges

0 Comments | USA TODAY, December, 2007 | by Edward Iwata

Federal regulators filed fraud charges Tuesday against Maxim Integrated Products and two of the company's former top executives, continuing the government's two-year-long crackdown on stock-option backdating.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a civil complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, alleged that Silicon Valley chipmaker Maxim, former CEO John Gifford and former chief financial officer Carl Jasper filed false financial information when they backdated stock-option grants for Maxim employees and executives.

Maxim and Gifford, without admitting or denying guilt, settled with the SEC. Gifford agreed to pay $800,000 in disgorgement, penalties and interest, according to SEC co-acting regional director Marc Fagel in San Francisco.

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