Sealed is the fate of Comverse Technology’s former general counsel, William Sorin, for his role in that company’s backdated stock options. An uncertain future, however, still potentially awaits many more GCs caught up in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s web of backdating investigations.
Sorin, 57, the first attorney to plead guilty over allegations that he helped manipulate backdated stock options, will pay $3.1 million to settle civil-fraud charges brought by the SEC. The settlement illuminates a whole new area of concern among attorneys who now find themselves in the crosshairs of government investigators, even as they try to probe their own companies’ possible misdeeds.
