In June, Samueli pleaded guilty to lying to investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission about backdating at Broadcom.

He made the plea under a deal with federal prosecutors that would have let him pay $12 million and get probation instead of prison.

Carney rejected the deal as too lenient, saying he did not want the public to think the billionaire owner of the NHL Anaheim Ducks could buy justice.

On Tuesday, Carney warned Samueli that if he loses his appeal, he could face a harsher sentence than the one he had agreed to with prosecutors. Samuel’s sentencing is set for Aug. 3.

Under the plea agreement, Samueli would have served five years probation and paid $12 million to the federal government in addition to a $250,000 fine - the maximum allowed by law for the offense.

Samueli would not have been required to help federal prosecutors build their cases against Broadcom’s former chief financial officer William J. Ruehle and company co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, who are accused of conspiracy and securities fraud in connection with the backdating probe.

Nicholas also faces drug-related charges, including accusations that he slipped ecstasy into the drinks of business associates.

Nicholas and Ruehle have pleaded not guilty and are free on bail. If convicted, each could face life in prison.

Backdating involves retroactively setting a stock option’s exercise price to a low point in the stock’s value, boosting the profits that are attained when the shares are sold. It is legal when properly accounted for, but if companies fail to properly disclose the move, profits can be overstated and taxes underpaid.

The probe into Broadcom’s options backdating led the Irvine, Calif.-based telecommunications chip maker to write down $2.2 billion last year, the largest restatement of its kind.

Source: AP

The FCC wrote to Verizon and 11 cable companies last month about their practice of moving analog channels into digital tiers to free up bandwidth for other uses, such as high-definition channels.

To watch channels that have been moved, subscribers to analog service must either subscribe to a more expensive digital tier, rent a digital set-top box or use an adapter, which service providers are starting to offer for free.

The FCCs Oct. 30 letter went to Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp., Bright House Networks, Suddenlink Communications, Bend Cable Communications, GCI Company, Harron Entertainment, a unit of Harron Communications, RCN Corp. and Verizon. Verizon was included because it offers pay-TV through its FiOS service.

Cable providers are in a race with satellite TV and phone companies to offer the most high-definition channels. About half of the nations 65 million cable households buy only the analog basic or “enhanced basic” tiers.

The agency also will investigate whether providers are misleading customers into thinking that when analog television channels move to the digital tier of service the shift is related to the federal governments mandate that all broadcasts be digital by February, Martin said.

The two moves are unrelated. Linking the two in customers minds could prompt more people to opt for digital video services.

The FCC has asked companies being probed to submit information about their pricing and channel switching practices within two weeks.

Martin said it also appears consumers werent given “appropriate notice” about the channel changes.

He said the FCC has received a “significant” number of consumer complaints about the practice of moving analog channels to digital tiers of service, which has accelerated this year.

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said the company has started offering a free digital set-top box and up to two digital adapters to “enhanced basic” customers. The adapters convert digital signals to analog.

“We told customers repeatedly that this was coming. We asked them to contact us. We told them about their options, including offering them the digital adapter for that TV for free,” Young said.

Bruce Broquet, vice president of finance for GCI, said its system will be all digital by the end of the year so the subject matter will be moot for customers.

Other cable operators either declined to comment or didnt immediately return calls for comment from The Associated Press.

The FCCs letter was sent out a day after Consumers Union asked the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to look into the practice of moving analog channels to the digital tier.

“Consumers are left paying the same monthly rate for significantly less service, or must rent more expensive set-top boxes for each television set they own,” said Consumers Union, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.

Source: ctnhr

Poorly grounded equipment or cables could give electrical shocks or start fires, but there have been no reports of FiOS equipment causing harm to people or property, Verizon said.

The New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates telecommunications, has been dogging Verizon on the electrical issue since 2006, and the staff concluded in a report to the commission last week that the company’s remedies don’t go far enough.

New York is the only state to have raised these concerns, but Verizon is installing FiOS in 15 others.

Fiber-optic cable itself isn’t electrically conductive, but in most of the homes Verizon connects to the service, it wall-mounts a box that sprouts a coaxial video cable. The New York regulators are concerned that the coaxial cable could inadvertently carry a high voltage.

The report said 17 percent of new FiOS installations in the state still didn’t meet the National Electrical Code in August, down from 50 percent earlier. The Public Service Commission staff considers 5 percent the goal, and asked the commission to consider suspending the company’s right to perform new installations in New York City until it achieves that goal in the rest of the state.

Verizon is spending $23 billion on FiOS, replacing copper phone lines with optical fibers in much of its coverage area. The massive project is intended to let the phone company compete with cable companies in delivering TV service and fast Internet downloads.

With 3 million households, New York City is the single largest market for FiOS, and a big growth opportunity for the company. It received permission from regulators in July to start selling its FiOS TV service, and is now working toward making it available to half a million households by the end of the year. Some surrounding suburbs, particularly on Long Island, have had FiOS available for a few years.

Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe said that fewer than 5 percent of new installations in New York state were unsatisfactory in September, according to an independent consulting firm it has hired to perform inspections.

“We’ve bent over backwards to make sure we meet all their concerns,” Rabe said. “Really, what it stems from is that we have installations of new technology that really isn’t covered well by regulations.”

The company is inspecting all of the several hundred thousand FiOS installations in the state made before Aug. 1, and fixing the ones that don’t meet the electrical code.

“We certainly do not think there is any danger from this,” Rabe said.

Source: AP