80 companies under investigation or no, while the ongoing backdating/springloading shenanigans might interest this (recovering) investigator it is not exactly exciting stuff for the average joe. Unless, they were to take a closer look at one of the two criminal cases that arisen from the SEC investigation. The Chicago Tribune runs down the excitement of the Comverse matter:

As options scandal grows, lawyers try to make it no big deal

By Tom Petruno
Columnist for the Los Angeles Times
A Tribune Co. Newspaper
August 13, 2006

The stock-option backdating scandal hadn't been looking like great fodder for screenwriters. Then the government last week announced its case against Comverse Technology Inc. Imaginary employees, a slush fund named for "Phantom of the Opera," a fugitive chief executive--now we're getting the kinds of details that can overcome the eye-glazing effect that the term "option backdating" can induce. This ought to at least be good for a cheap made-for-TV movie...

And how...now we're talking. Read more here.

--MDT

Labels: Comverse