Peter Verniero, Co-Chair of the Firm’s Corporate Internal Investigations and Business Crimes Practice Group, was interviewed for a Reuters article on options backdating. This article titled “Companies may dodge bullet in options probes” by Martha Graybow was published on April 27, 2007 and discusses the Apple Inc. options backdating case. Civil charges were brought against two employees, but the company was not charged. According to the article “‘When a company is indicted it is crippling,’ said Peter Verniero, a former New Jersey state attorney general who now handles internal investigations at law firm Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross in Newark. When the SEC brings a civil case, ‘it’s not as severe as an indictment, but in the marketplace in terms of reputational damage it can be severe.’”
