Ex-Maxim Finance Chief Jasper Liable in SEC Backdating Case - Bloomberg BusinessWeek, April 24, 2010, By Joel Rosenblatt

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April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Carl Jasper, the former
finance chief of Maxim Integrated Products Inc., was found liable for
securities fraud in a stock-option backdating civil lawsuit filed by the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Jurors returned the verdict yesterday in federal
court in San Jose, California, the SEC said in an e-mailed statement.

“We are pleased that a jury sitting in the heart
of Silicon Valley recognized that stock-option backdating is, in fact, a
fraudulent practice that matters to investors, and that Mr. Jasper, as
the CFO of a public company, was ultimately responsible for misleading
investors about the accuracy of Maxim’s financial reports,” said Mark
Fickes, trial counsel for the SEC.

The SEC claimed that through improper backdating
from 2000 to 2005, Jasper concealed hundreds of millions of dollars in
expenses from investors and overstated the company’s income. Jasper
served as Maxim’s principal accounting officer and vice president from
1999 to 2007, according to the SEC.

In a court filing, Jasper denied the SEC’s
allegations. His lawyer, Steven Bauer, said in e-mail he will ask the
judge to overrule the jury verdict at a May 24 hearing.

“Carl Jasper is a good man who never intended to
do anything wrong,” he said. “This is the first step in a long road, and
we are confident that in the end he will prevail.”

Jasper was found liable for fraud, lying to
auditors, and aiding Maxim’s failure to maintain accurate books and
records, the SEC said in the statement.

Judge Ware

U.S. District Judge James Ware will determine
remedies and sanctions at a later date. The SEC’s complaint seeks
disgorgement and repayment of bonuses, monetary penalties, and a bar
from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

In 2007, Maxim, the maker of chips for laptop
computers based in Sunnyvale, California, settled a separate SEC suit
over backdated stock options without paying a fine. The company pledged
not to further violate securities laws as part of the settlement.

The company backdated options and overstated
earnings from 2000 to 2005, according to the SEC. The company’s founder
and former chairman, John Gifford, who died in January 2009, agreed in
2007 pay $803,000 to settle SEC claims he was aware of backdating and
should have known Maxim didn’t account for it correctly. Neither Maxim
nor Gifford admitted or denied wrongdoing under their agreements.

The case is SEC v. Carl W. Jasper, 07-06122, U.S.
District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).

--Editors: Peter Blumberg, Michael Hytha.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San
Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at
drovella@bloomberg.net.