SEC outs itself in case against ex-Brocade CEO

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to have revealed its intentions to go after former Brocade CEO Greg Reyes. The commission earlier today announced a press conference in San Francisco via a covertly named Word file dubbed "brocademedia.doc".

"You can't draw any conclusion from that," SEC spokesman John Heine told Reuters.

Ah, but you can.

Brocade's ex-chief has long been at the center of speculation that the SEC would dish out civil charges against him over the alleged improper booking of stock options expenses. Numerous companies have been fingered in a wide-ranging stock options probe. The government suspects that companies reworked the dates of options grants to give employees more lucrative packages.

The SEC will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. today in San Francisco and is expected to announce the first set of criminal and civil charges in the stock option probe against Reyes, making an example of the former executive.

Brocade, which has suffered from long-running accounting issues, has been investigating the options issue.

The storage switch maker has a contentious relationship with Reyes. It granted him a cushy exit package only to try and weasel out of the deal and any association with Reyes later on, claiming the executive wasn't doing his consultancy work as promised.

We'll have more this afternoon, following the SEC announcement. ®