The New York Times today has without a doubt my favorite business section story of the year:
Henry T. Nicholas III, the flamboyant co-founder and former chief executive of the chip maker Broadcom, was indicted Thursday in California on fraud, conspiracy and drug charges, including allegations that he spiked the drinks of other executives with ecstasy.This guy's trial sounds like it would be even more fun to cover than R. Kelly's. Wait, there's more:One indictment said he also maintained several residences that were used to distribute and sell drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, and threatened to kill people if they talked about his activities.
In one incident described in the indictment, Mr. Nicholas and his guests are said to have inhaled so much marijuana on a flight to Las Vegas from Orange County, Calif., that clouds of smoke and fumes drifted into the cockpit of the private plane and the pilot was required to put on an oxygen mask.See, I knew nothing good came out of Woodstock '99!Mr. Nicholas is also accused of hiring prostitutes not only for himself but also for customers and associates of Broadcom, and to have supplied them with drugs. And, according to the indictment, Mr. Nicholas “used threats of violence and death and payments of money to attempt to conceal his unlawful conduct.”
In one 2002 incident cited in the indictment, Mr. Nicholas is described as entering into a $1 million settlement agreement “with a Broadcom employee who had knowledge” of his boss’s drug activities.
Mr. Nicholas used several residences in Orange County and Las Vegas, as well as a commercial office space called the “warehouse,” to distribute and use drugs, according to the unsealed indictments. Various code words, including “supplies,” “party favors” and “refreshments,” were used to describe the various drugs, the indictment said. But ecstasy is described as a particular favorite. According to the indictment, Mr. Nicholas gave some to an executive without his knowledge in July 1999 at the Woodstock concert in Rome, N.Y.