A federal judge on Thursday dismissed felony narcotics charges and two civil forfeiture cases against Broadcom co-founder and former CEO Henry Nicholas III, wiping the slate clean for a man who once faced the possibility of decades in prison.
Prosecutors requested the dismissal after U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney threw out a parallel securities fraud case against Nicholas and the chipmaker’s former CFO six weeks ago and reprimanded prosecutors for alleged misconduct.
Carney admonished Nicholas for his apparent drug problem before dismissing the narcotics indictment.
“From the evidence … as well as what’s been attained from the pretrial services, it does seem that you had a serious drug problem,” Carney said in court. “You paid dearly for that. You lost your marriage, you lost your job, your reputation has been tarnished, but from what I gather you’ve been clean and sober for two years and I commend you for that.”
Federal prosecutors endured a public dressing-down when Carney threw out the high-profile securities fraud case against Nicholas. In the two civil cases, they sought to seize Nicholas’ 1993 Gulfstream jet and properties in Las Vegas and Newport Beach. Prosecutors had alleged Nicholas stored and distributed ecstasy, cocaine and marijuana to friends and business associates from the properties and maintained a “drug warehouse” in Laguna Niguel.
Read More: – the Associated Press