SEC threatens Sycamore with civil action

Investigators at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have recommended that the SEC take civil action against Sycamore Networks regarding that company’s stock option grant procedures and accounting.

The SEC notified the optical equipment vendor on Monday in what is known as a “Wells notice,” Sycamore revealed in a regulatory filing today.

Sycamore has a chance to respond to the Wells notice before the civil action recommendation is made formally to the SEC.

The company’s chief financial officer, Richard Gaynor, resigned in September. And new CFO Paul Brauneis began work last week.

In addition to the SEC, Sycamore is currently being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Labor and the attorney general for Massachusetts, where Sycamore is based. In May of last year, shareholders also sued the company in connection with its stock option grant practices.

Two years ago, Sycamore reported that former employees had deliberately falsified records to affect the value of stock option grants. The start dates on six employee records were “deliberately modified” to yield a lower exercise price for their stock options, Sycamore said then, and six existing stock option grants were deliberately cancelled and reissued to allow a lower exercise price.

Following an internal investigation, the company vowed improvements to its accounting and internal control processes to prevent future problems.

Last year a former employee sued Sycamore, claiming wrongful termination as well as “fraud in the inducement, retaliation and claims relating to certain of the company’s stock option grant practices in 1999 - 2001.” That case was dismissed in court, though the plaintiff has appealed.