By AMIR EFRATI

A
former senior executive of Monster Worldwide Inc. will not go to jail
for his role in backdating millions of dollars' worth of employee
stock-option grants at the company because he cooperated in the case, a
federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

Myron Olesnyckyj, who served as general counsel, was sentenced to
one year of probation at a hearing in Manhattan federal court. He had
faced up to 25 years in prison.

The sentencing of Mr Olesnyckyj, who pleaded guilty to charges in
2007, ends a string of criminal cases involving former executives at
the company. Monster owns the online job-search Web site Monster.com.

The company's founder, Andrew McKelvey, also admitted to scheming to
violate accounting rules by making it appear as if options were granted
on dates in which Monster's stock price had been at a periodic low
point, instead of the dates when the options were actually awarded.

The company's former president, James Treacy, was convicted at trial
last year for the same conduct, which lasted from about 1996 to 2003,
prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff cited Mr. Olesnyckyj's cooperation in
the government's fraud case against Mr. Treacy as a reason for the
lenient sentence.

Last fall Judge Rakoff sentenced Mr. Treacy to two years in prison following his fraud conviction.

In 2008, Mr. McKelvey, who was suffering from pancreatic cancer,
entered into a deferred-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors
in which he admitted guilt but received no prison time. He died later
that year.

The same year the company, which had to restate its earnings because
of the illegal options backdating, agreed to settle a shareholder
class-action over the backdating for $47.5 million.

Stock options give recipients the right to purchase

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