Ex-McAfee exec cleared of option backdating charge

SAN FRANCISCO

Friday, 03 October 2008 20:35:41

-

A jury has acquitted the former top lawyer at computer-security software maker McAfee Inc. of illegally tampering with his stock option grants to boost his pay package.

Kent Roberts, who served as McAfee's general counsel until he was fired in 2006, was charged with two counts of fraud and one count of falsifying accounting books. A jury in San Francisco on Friday found him not guilty on the fraud charges and couldn't come to a decision on the third charge.