LEGAL SEC, Former Tyco Offic ...
Edward Federman, a former executive for Tyco International, agreed to pay $2.65 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he helped overstate the company's operating income from fiscal 1998 through fiscal 2003's first quarter, ended Dec. 30, 2002.</br></br>The SEC said that Federman, who was chief financial officer in Tyco's electronics division for two years, and two other executives were involved in a sham transaction and improperly used accounts to improve financial results.</br></br>Stephen P. Luscko of Sarasota, Fla., was sentenced to five years in prison for manipulating stocks in four publicly traded companies through an e-mail scheme that netted $6.8 million. Two others in the case, Gregory Alphonse Neu and Brian George Brunette, had been sentenced earlier.</br></br>The three men formed the four companies and touted them through sham press releases and e-mails, then dumped the stock they owned, leaving others' investments essentially worthless, the Justice Department said. Luscko, Neu and three of the companies also face civil charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.</br></br>Atmel plans to restate 12 years of earnings to include $125 million in costs for incorrectly dated stock options after an investigation by its board, which concluded that 93 of 112 awards handed out from 1997 to 2006 were backdated.