Semiconductor company Actel has announced that former chief financial officer Henry Perret resigned from its board of directors. The board requested Perret’s resignation after a special committee found he had engaged in questionable conduct relating to the company’s historical stock-option-grant practices and related accounting.
Actel stressed that the special committee did not find that any current officers or employees engaged in misconduct and that it has “confidence in the integrity” of chief executive officer John C. East and current chief financial officer Jon A. Anderson.
In at least one instance between 1996 and 2001, when he was CFO, Perret participated in the selection of a favorable grant date with the benefit of hindsight and did not properly consider the accounting implications of that action, according to Actel. The company also noted that a number of other grants during that period, including some grants to executives and new employees in connection with corporate acquisitions, were supported by inadequate documentation for the recorded measurement dates.
Perret could not immediately be reached for comment.
Beginning in 2002, the company maintained, documentation relating to annual and other grants improved substantially, although some minor errors occurred in the form of corrections or adjustments to grant allocations after the recorded measurement dates.
Actel reiterated its earlier disclosure that it may need to restate prior results to record additional charges related to past stock-option grants. The company elaborated that it is working with Ernst & Young to evaluate corrections to measurement dates and related accounting issues and quantify their financial and tax impacts.
The company also disclosed that it has received notices from Nasdaq that it is not in compliance with certain requirements for continued listing.