In-House Counsel
Remaining Charge Dropped Against Ex-McAfee General Counsel
Posted Oct 7, 2008, 05:21 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Federal prosecutors are following a federal judge’s suggestion and dropping the remaining charges against McAfee’s former general counsel, Kent Roberts.
Jurors acquitted Roberts of two counts of mail fraud on Friday but deadlocked on a third charge of falsifying records. He had been accused of increasing the value of his stock options by about $200,000 in a backdating scheme. He never exercised the options.
Acting U.S. Attorney Dave Anderson announced the decision to drop the final charge yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel had recommended against a retrial on the remaining count.
"We tried the case as effectively as we could, and could not convince this jury that we had proved it beyond a reasonable doubt," Anderson said in a statement published in the Daily Journal (sub. req.). "Respecting the jury's views, we have decided not to pursue this case further."
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