1. Mengumpulkan bersama atau melebur: Masalah dengan biopic termasuk. Tanggal pindah, kekasih terhapus, banyak karakter terkumpul menjadi satu (Ty Burr). 2. Untuk menggabungkan (dua varian teks, misalnya) menjadi satu keseluruhan. 3. Gagal membedakan antara bingung. Lihat Catatan Penggunaan di bawah ini. Latin cx14dnflx101re. Cx14dnflx101t-. Com-. Com - flx101re. Untuk meniup lihat bhlx113 - di Apendiks akar Indo-Eropa. Catatan Penggunaan: Secara tradisional, mengacaukan berarti menyatukan atau melebur, seperti dalam kalimat yang saya hadapi dalam membedakan karakter Jane Austens, saya menyadari bahwa saya telah menukar Elizabeth Bennet dan Emma Woodhouse menjadi satu karakter dalam pikiran saya. Dalam survei tahun 2015, 87 persen Pemanfaat Penggunaan menggunakan penggunaan tradisional ini. Baru-baru ini, sebuah pengertian baru untuk conflate telah muncul, yang berarti Untuk salah satu hal yang salah, seolah-olah itu adalah sinonim untuk membingungkan. Pada tahun 2015, panelis penggunaan kami menemukan bahwa pengertian baru ini dapat diterima secara marginal, dengan 55 persen menerima hukuman Rakyat sering menguraikan hutang nasional dengan defisit federal ketika Senator berbicara tentang pengurangan hutang, dia sebenarnya mengacu pada defisit. (Tr) untuk menggabungkan atau memadukan (dua hal, esp dua versi teks) sehingga membentuk keseluruhan C16: dari bahasa Latin conflre untuk meniup bersama, dari flre untuk meniup Referensi dalam arsip berkala feodal dan pra-kapitalis) - adalah Berkaca dengan argumen kapitalis Utara tentang sifat perang, argumen yang juga mengutuk perbudakan (jika mungkin sedikit lebih tulus dalam beberapa kasus, Lincoln menjadi contoh penting di antara mereka, daripada kaum sosialis) dan dengan demikian mempertegas sosialisme dari Empat Puluh-Eighters dan yang lainnya dengan Lincoln Republicanism dan kemudian dengan totalitarianisme Stalin dan Mao, Nazisme Adolf Hitler, dan (seperti yang diharapkan) dengan para liberal pemerintah besar di Amerika Serikat. Beberapa akan menyukai perubahan beberapa, yang sebelumnya pernah menentang teks yang dikompromikan, boleh, saya kira, ingin mempertimbangkan kembali posisi mereka. Kedua juru tulis tersebut mengkombinasikan realitas dua sistem yang sangat berbeda, pertaruhan kolam renang dan pembuatan buku, karena Deep Impact tidak pernah benar-benar diperdagangkan pada 1-10. Sebut saja derajat inflasi atau kebutuhan tenaga kerja yang beralih cepat, faktanya tetap bahwa perguruan tinggi Amerika, melimpah dan kuat di tahun 1950an, telah berkumpul untuk membentuk jaringan institusi rapuh yang menghadapi tantangan skala yang menakutkan, ketergantungan uang kuliah, kompetisi yang ganas, dan nafsu yang tak terpuaskan. Konsumen pendidikan. Apa yang secara longgar dan provokatif kita sebut ras, begitu sering dikagumi dengan warna, budaya dan kesadaran, berubah seiring berlalunya setiap momen sejarah dan setiap langkah kaki menuju atau menjauh dari sudut duniawi tempat nenek moyang kita bermigrasi. SEBAGAI JIKA KOMPENSASI belum dipolitisasi, skandal penggantian dana opsi telah memperbarui keraguan tentang keefektifan bentuk kompensasi ini dan menggabungkan beberapa masalah lain yang melibatkan pengendalian internal Sarbanes-Oxley. Seringkali menggunakan bahasa sinkopasi, Agnew mengkomunikasikan jurnalis yang melaporkan fakta dan pemrotes yang tidak nyaman yang mencoba menghentikan perang. Dalam singkatnya, TEI menunjukkan masalah klausul berdiri dan Commerce yang terkumpul di Cuno karena kelompok pajak wajib yang menantang kredit pajak Ohios tidak dapat menunjukkan bahaya yang sebenarnya - sebuah prasyarat untuk berlaku pada kedua isu tersebut. Dewan tersebut telah menggabungkan agama dengan sains dengan cara yang buruk melayani kaum muda Ohio. Dan di sini muncul lagi, bersamaan dengan beberapa pemikiran tentang determinisme - memiliki masa depan Anda diserahkan kepada Anda versus nilai moral kehendak bebas, sesuatu yang terutama Amerika, terutama sekarang, dan terutama terkumpul dengan ekspansi ekonomi. Longfellow memodelkan sajaknya pada epik Finlandia Kavelala, menceritakan Hiawatha Iroquoian dengan seorang pahlawan budaya Algonquian bernama Nanabozho, dan sejak saat itu di Hiawatha tidak pernah sama. Ini meminta bantuan American College of Gastroenterology, organisasi profesional untuk dokter yang mengkhususkan diri dalam mengobati penyakit pada perut dan usus, sebuah kampanye yang secara sengaja dan efektif menggabung GERD, yang serius, dan sakit maag, yang tidak, dalam pikiran Dari kedua konsumen dan dokter. Dade nanti, CEO yang dituntut Kobi Alexander akan kembali ke AS untuk menghadapi tuduhan Kobi Alexander untuk kembali ke AS Senin, 22 Agustus 2016 7:39 ET ET 01:21 Mantan Ketua dan CEO Teknologi Comverse Jacob Kobi Alexander, yang Menolak untuk kembali dari Afrika setelah didakwa dalam skandal opsi saham luas satu dekade yang lalu, telah setuju untuk kembali ke AS untuk menghadapi tuduhan, CNBC telah belajar. Alexander akan mengaku bersalah pada hari Rabu atas tuduhan penggelapan satu kali, menurut pengacaranya yang berbasis di New York, Benjamin Brafman, membawa kasus salah satu kasus terakhir dari era dot-com. Kesepakatan tersebut merupakan hasil perundingan sensitif selama lebih dari dua tahun di antara Departemen Kehakiman, pengacara Alexanders, dan pejabat pemerintah di Namibia, di mana Alexander, 64, telah tinggal sejak 2006 saat melawan ekstradisi ke AS. Dia dijadwalkan untuk hadir di hadapan seorang Hakim Namibia pada hari Senin pagi untuk mengakhiri persidangan di sana dan menjelaskan jalannya untuk kembali ke New York. Seorang juru bicara kantor Pengacara A. S. di Brooklyn, yang mengajukan dakwaan asli, menolak berkomentar. Juri agung federal mendakwa Alexander pada 2006 dengan 35 tuduhan karena diduga mendalangi skema 15 tahun untuk memanipulasi nilai opsi Comverse jutaan dolar. Dia juga dituduh melakukan pencucian uang setelah memindahkan jutaan dolar ke rekening pribadinya di negara asalnya, Israel, juga penyuapan dan kesalahan saksi karena berusaha meyakinkan pejabat keuangan perusahaan untuk membatalkan skandal tersebut. Comverse, kekasih Wall Street selama ledakan teknologi, mempelopori pengembangan voicemail. Tapi setelah bubble meledak, perusahaan tersebut termasuk yang pertama ditargetkan dalam investigasi federal sweeping mengenai kecurangan pilihan. Dua eksekutif puncak mengaku bersalah. Comverse Technology bertahan hingga 2013, saat dibeli oleh seorang mantan anak perusahaan, Verint Systems. Dengan dakwaannya sendiri yang menjulang di tahun 2006, Alexander pindah ke Namibia, yang tidak memiliki perjanjian ekstradisi dengan Amerika Serikat. CNBC melacaknya di sana pada tahun 2007, dan menemukannya tinggal di sebuah komunitas yang terjaga keamanannya di halaman Windhoek Country Club. Townhouse mewahnya berdekatan dengan lapangan terbang pribadi, meskipun hakim Namibia melarang perjalanannya dan Alexander secara teoritis menghadapi penangkapan tertentu jika dia meninggalkan negara tersebut. Pada saat itu, Alexander telah menjanjikan jutaan dolar dengan standar Namibia untuk bantuan anak-anak sekolah Namibia dan perumahan baru untuk kota-kota kota yang miskin. Alexander dan istrinya juga mendirikan sepasang dapur umum di negara ini, yang dikreditkan oleh media lokal dengan memberi makan ratusan anak setiap hari. Pengacara di A. S. menuduh Alexander menggunakan uang pemegang saham Comverse untuk membeli pemerintah Namibia, yang dengan tegas ditolak oleh pengacara Namibia-nya. Dia berhak berada di sini, dia berhak berpartisipasi dalam ekonomi, dan saya pikir siapa pun yang memiliki gagasan semacam itu, ini adalah alat untuk menghasilkan dan membuat sendiri, Richard Metcalfe mengatakan kepada CNBC pada tahun 2007. Meskipun demikian, proses ekstradisi di Pengadilan Namibia terus berlanjut selama bertahun-tahun, dengan sebagian besar dengar pendapat ditunda atau dibatalkan. Alexander tetap tinggal di Namibia lama setelah mantan eksekutifnya keluar dari penjara, dilaporkan terbang di 200 tamu untuk bar bar mitzvah pada tahun 2008. Namun Alexander tidak mengabaikan masalah hukumnya yang menjulang di AS. Dia akhirnya menyelesaikan beberapa tuntutan hukum yang diajukan oleh pemegang saham Comverse. . Dia juga setuju untuk membayar 60 juta kepada perusahaan yang dia dirikan, dan menjatuhkan kontestannya untuk 72 juta orang dalam jumlah pesangon. Pada tahun 2010, dia menetap dengan Securities and Exchange Commission lebih dari 53 juta, dalam hal apa yang disebut agensi sebagai salah satu permukiman terbesar yang pernah ada dalam opsi back-dating case. Namun kasus kriminal terhadapnya tetap merupakan akhir yang akhirnya berakhir, diperumit oleh roda keadilan yang terkenal lamban di Namibia, dan fakta bahwa opsi era dot-com yang diajukan oleh pemerintah sebelumnya bukanlah prioritas utama di Departemen Kehakiman AS . Meskipun kepergiannya dari Namibia, Alexander dan keluarganya akan melanjutkan pekerjaan amal mereka di Namibia, kata Brafman dalam sebuah pernyataan. Secara khusus, sejak 2007, keluarga Alexander telah membiayai dan mengoperasikan dapur umum di Namibia yang telah melayani lebih dari 750.000 makanan bergizi untuk anak-anak di Katutura dan Kuisebmond. Dapur sup ini akan terus beroperasi, mempekerjakan tujuh orang dan memberi makan 700 anak setiap hari. Koreksi: Cerita ini direvisi untuk mengoreksi bahwa Alexander tinggal di Afrika setelah didakwa. Dia pindah ke sana sebelum dia didakwa di A. S.Dr. Nicholas dan Mr. Hyde Step memasuki ruang tamuku: Henry Nicholas di lorong di bawah rumah Laguna Hills-nya. Oleh Mark BosterL. A. Waktu. Pada tanggal 12 April 2008, sebuah pemakaman diadakan di Gereja Kristen Westwood Hills, yang berada di seberang U. C.L. A. Untuk seorang pria bernama Robert Warnes Leach. Leach adalah seorang penulis skenario dan guru yang terkenal karena naskahnya untuk serial televisi Perry Mason. Namun, obituari tersebut juga secara menonjol menyebutkan fakta bahwa anak tirinya Leachx2019 adalah Henry Nicholas, pendiri perusahaan semikonduktor yang sukses berusia 49 tahun bernama Broadcom. Nicholas adalah salah satu negara terkaya di dunia tahun ini, Forbes menempatkan kekayaan bersihnya di 1,8 miliar. Pada sebuah acara makan malam yang diadakan malam itu di hotel Beverly Wilshire, Nicholas, yang membantu merencanakan acara tersebut, memberikan pidato yang pedih dan menunjukkan kepada kerumunan orang berkumpulnya episode favorit Perry Mason. Ibu Leach dan Nicholasx2019s, Marcella, menikah saat Nicholas masih anak-anak, dan walaupun Leach sakit selama beberapa tahun dan meninggal pada usia 93 tahun, Nicholas, mengatakan bahwa teman-temannya, bingung dengan kematian pria yang dia panggil ayahnya. Beberapa hari kemudian, pengacara pribadi Nicholasx2019, Bill Hake, mengumumkan bahwa Nicholasx2014 yang memiliki reputasi sebagai partyerx2014 yang ketat telah memeriksa dirinya sendiri di Betty Ford Center selama sebulan rehabilitasi alkohol. X201CA kerja darah terakhir menunjukkan panel hati baik di luar kisaran normal, x201D mengatakan Hake. Dia menambahkan, x201CNick melihat nilai kehidupan, membebani kematian ayahnya. Nicholas, yang nama lengkapnya adalah Dr. Henry Thompson Nicholas III (dia memiliki gelar Ph. D di bidang teknik listrik), juga melihat sesuatu yang lain. kedatangan. Paling tidak tahun lalu, dia khawatir jaksa federal sedang menyelidiki dia, dan memang memang begitu. Kurang dari dua bulan setelah pemakaman, pada tanggal 5 Juni, Departemen Kehakiman tidak membuka satu tapi dua dakwaan federal. Nicholas dikenai tuduhan penipuan karena perannya dalam dugaan skema di mana Broadcom menipu pemegang sahamnya tentang berapa banyak karyawan tersebut membayar dengan berbohong tentang waktu pemberian opsi saham. Menurut pemerintah, mantan pejabat keuangan mantan Bill Gates, Bill Ruehle, yang juga didakwa, telah menyebut skema tersebut sebagai angsa x201Cgolden, x201D dan, memang, selama bertahun-tahun praktik ini berhasil mengembang keuntungan Broadcom melaporkan ke publik. . Bagaimanapun juga, ada tuduhan lainnya, yang menjadikan cerita Nicholasx2019 menjadi sesuatu yang lebih sedikit lagi pada catatan lain dalam sejarah kejahatan kerah putih. Dalam sebuah surat dakwaan untuk perdagangan narkoba, pemerintah melukiskan gambaran tentang seorang pelaku narkoba yang mempekerjakan pelacur untuk dirinya dan pelanggannya, menggunakan kokain, methamphetamine, Ekstasi, resep obat penghilang rasa sakit, dan lebih banyak lagi dan membuat minuman para eksekutif teknologi lainnya tanpa sepengetahuan mereka. Nicholas mengaku tidak bersalah, dan pada tahun 2009 dewan juri kemungkinan besar akan memutuskan nasibnya atas semua tuduhan tersebut. Tapi sejak tahun 2000, lebih dari selusin orang yang dua di antaranya dilunasi oleh Broadcom dan setuju untuk merahasiakan tuduhan mereka, menurut jaksa penuntut telah mengajukan tuntutan hukum, draft pengaduan, atau deklarasi pendukung yang membuat tuduhan pemerintah tampak seperti versi PG-rated. . Di antara mereka: bahwa Nicholas membangun sarang yang luas dari kedurhakaan di bawah rumah Laguna Hills multi-juta dolarnya. Dia ingin tinggal di atas tanah bersama istri dan tiga anaknya, dengan pilihan untuk masuk ke bawah tanah untuk memasukkan dirinya ke dalam kokain, ekstase, Viagra, kecepatan, pelacur, dan teman-teman pesta, x201D menuduh kontraktor yang membantu membangun apa yang mereka sebut x201C Lair. x201D Pada tanggal 5 Juni di pengadilan federal Santa Ana, jaksa berpendapat bahwa Nicholas, yang tingginya enam kaki enam inci, harus ditolak jaminannya karena kecenderungannya untuk melakukan intimidasi terhadap saksi (dia telah mengatakan bahwa dia mungkin membunuh orang, x201D menurut jaksa Ken Julian), kemudahan yang bisa dia kendalikan (Nicholas memiliki helikopter Agusta buatan Italia dan juga Gulfstream IV dan Cessna Citation), dan potensi ancaman yang diajukan oleh hakim disebut sebagai tentara pribadinya. (Manual keamanan pribadi Nicholasx2019s mensyaratkan bahwa tiga penjaga bersenjata bersenjata yang sering melakukan penegakan hukum atau menzo militer mengendalikan rumahnya.) Sebaliknya, hakim membebaskannya dengan uang jaminan 3,4 juta dan membiarkannya kembali ke program 63.000 per bulan dengan sebuah rehabilitasi mewah. Pusat bernama Cliffside Malibu. Sekarang Nicholas, yang dulu tidak bisa dibungkam (dia pernah dengan bangga mengumumkan, x201CI adalah mimpi buruk hubungan media, x201D dan dia), telah ditutup oleh pengacaranya. Dia tidak akan berkomentar untuk cerita ini. Memang, hanya sedikit yang berkomentar mengenai rekaman tersebut, sebagian karena Nicholas memiliki reputasi untuk menjadi pendendam. (Seperti yang dikatakan satu orang kepada saya, jika saya berbicara dengan Anda, saya bisa berkencan dengan pengacara AS atau berkencan dengan pengacara Nicholasx2019.x201D) Beberapa teman setia mengatakan bahwa Nicholas dianiaya dengan salah, dan bahwa banyak tuntutan hukum diajukan terhadap Dia hanya x201Cextortion, x201D seperti Chris Berman, mantan segel dan teman Angkatan Laut, mengatakannya. (Dan tampaknya ada beberapa hal itu.) Tapi, untuk sebagian besar, ini merupakan kekurangan mengejutkan yang mengejutkan. X201CI tidak tahu apakah ceritanya benar, tapi mereka bisa dipercaya jika Anda mengenalnya, x201D mengatakan satu orang yang pernah bekerja dengannya. X201Ada layak menerima apapun yang dia dapatkan. x201D x201CDo Anda merasa kasihan pada hiu di akhir Jaws x201D meminta orang lain yang mengenal Nicholas. Seorang mantan karyawan Broadcom mengatakan bahwa pada hari dakwaan itu membuka inboxnya dibanjiri pesan dari mantan rekan kerja dan orang industri. Kami tahu itu. Mereka semua berkata Jika tuduhan itu benar, kisah Dr Henry Nicholas adalah seks dan skandal yang ditulis besar. Pry di bawah permukaan yang mengejutkan, dan Anda juga menemukan pertanyaan yang lebih meresahkan. Rahasia apa yang bisa mengintai di bawah faksimili mulus Dari sebuah perusahaan yang sukses Apa yang bisa terjadi jika seseorang dengan imajinasi seorang remaja laki-laki yang kelaparan dan tidak memiliki batasan pribadi dapat memicu fantasinya dengan satu miliar dolar (dan kemudian beberapa) Dan akhirnya, apa yang Ini tentang sifat manusia x201Cenry Nicholas adalah sebuah paradoks: pria dengan kepribadian merusak diri sendiri yang menciptakan sesuatu yang hebat, kata Roger McNamee, investor teknologi terkenal, yang bertemu Nicholas di tahun-tahun awal Broadcom. Karena tidak ada yang mengemukakan bahwa chip Broadcomx2014 yang digunakan dalam segala hal mulai dari iPhone Applex2019 sampai Wii Nintendox2019, menghasilkan pendapatan mendekati 4 miliar, dan mempekerjakan 6.800 orang yang tidak memiliki sesuatu yang hebat, atau hal itu akan ada tanpa Henry Nicholas. Karakter karakter yang sangat beragam adalah pedang bermata dua, x201D mengatakan seorang mantan eksekutif Broadcom. Poin terkuatnya memiliki sebuah tandingan. x201D Penangkapan Henry Nicholas atas tuduhan kriminal pada saat pertama kali dia meledak di tempat kejadian dalam sekejap publisitas. Pada tanggal 17 April 1998, di tengah hiruk-pikuk Internet, Broadcomx2014 yang menonjol dari dot-com pada hari itu karena fakta bahwa mereka benar-benar menghasilkan keuntungan bagi publik pada 4 saham. Stoknya lebih dari dua kali lipat, dan pada akhir hari perdagangan, Nicholas dan rekan senegaranya, seorang pria pendiam yang berusia lima tahun bernama Dr. Henry Samueli, juga seorang insinyur teknikal Ph. D. Masing-masing bernilai 600 juta. Setelah penawaran saham publik terpanas awal, x201D mengoceh The New York Times. Ini adalah hari-hari ketika saham teknologi hanya naik, dan sekitar enam bulan kemudian, Nicholas menghubungi seorang teman kapitalis ventura. X201Cx200Ax2018Ix2019m miliarder Ini luar biasa Ini bekerja keras, kata orang ini. Aku seperti anak kecil. Kukatakan, x2018Donx2019t menganggapnya nyata. Ini sebenarnya tidak berarti bahwa uang itu sendiri sebenarnya tidak nyata, melainkan bisa memberi aura ketidaknyataan yang berbahaya bagi hidup itu. Aax2019t real. x2019x200Ax201D Nicholasx2019s doesnx2019t mean that the money itself wasnx2019t real, Dalam beberapa hal, Broadcomx2014 yang membuat chip yang memungkinkan suara, video, data, dan multi media untuk berjalan dengan kecepatan tinggi ke hampir semua tujuan, mulai dari kotak setel kabel ke jaringan nirkabel, adalah sebuah cerita start-up berteknologi tinggi klasik. Pada tahun 1991, Nicholas dan Samueli masing-masing menginvestasikan 5.000 dan bekerja di kondominium Redondo Beach Nicholasx2019. Nicholas adalah C. E.O. Sementara Samueli adalah teknolog utama. Nicholas, seperti banyak pengusaha, tidak banyak tumbuh dengan baik. Ia lahir di Cincinnati pada tahun 1959. Ayah kelahirannya, Henry T. Nicholas Jr. seorang pengacara untuk I. R.S. Berjuang dengan masalah alkohol. (Dia meninggal pada tahun 1986 pada usia 57.) Nicholas mengatakan kepada Los Angeles Times bahwa ayahnya sangat kasar terhadap ibunya, Marcella. Ketika Henry berusia empat tahun, orang tuanya berpisah, dan Marcella akhirnya memutuskan untuk pergi ke Santa Monica bersamanya dan adik perempuannya, Marsalee. Marcella kemudian memberi tahu teman-temannya tentang betapa muda Henry terikat dengan Robert Leach, yang dinikahinya pada tahun 1967. x201CMom, dia tahu nameku201D yang dia katakan saat pertama kali diperkenalkan. Pada tahun 1977, Nicholas, yang menjalani x201CNickx201D sejak usia muda, lulus dari Santa Monica High School, di mana dia telah berpartisipasi dalam klub x201CStrategy and Tacticsx201D dan juga debat, dan diberi nama sebagai siswa yang luar biasa. Dia pergi ke Akademi Angkatan Udara Amerika Serikat, dekat Colorado Springs, namun mengatakan kepada orang-orang bahwa dia keluar setelah tiga tahun karena dia terlalu tinggi untuk menjadi pilot pesawat tempur. Dia mendapatkan B. S. Di bidang teknik elektro dari U. C.L. A. Pada tahun 1982, dan masterx2019s pada tahun 1985. Selama tahun Nicholasx2019s di U. C.L. A. Keluarganya mengalami kerugian yang tragis. Pada bulan November 1983, Marsalee dibunuh oleh seorang mantan pacar, yang telah menguntitnya. Marcella dan Robert Leach, bersama dengan almarhum Ellen Griffin Dunne, mantan istri koresponden khusus Vanity Fair Dominick Dunne dan ibu dari Dominique Dunne, Juga dibunuh oleh mantan pacar, mendirikan Justice for Homicide Victims, yang memperjuangkan hak korban.22019. Nicholas tidak pernah membicarakan pembunuhan Marsaleex2019, bahkan untuk teman dekat, tapi selama bertahun-tahun dia telah mencurahkan waktu dan banyak uang untuk tujuan itu. Henry Nicholas bertemu Henry Samueli pada awal 1980an ketika kedua pria tersebut bekerja di sebuah kontraktor pembela yang disebut TRW. (Militer sering berada di ujung tombak teknologi jagoan.) Samueli juga merupakan produk brilian dari orang tua kelas menengah. Dia lahir di Buffalo, New York, hingga korban Holocaust Polandia, dan mendapatkan gelar Ph. D. Dari U. C.L. A. Pada tahun 1980 pada usia 25. Samueli, yang adalah seorang akademisi di jantung, meninggalkan TRW pada tahun 1985 untuk menjadi seorang profesor. Dia membujuk Nicholas untuk bergabung dengannya sebagai Ph. D. mahasiswa. (Nicholas, yang lebih tertarik pada bisnis, akhirnya mendapatkan gelar Ph. D. dari UCLA pada tahun 1998, sebelum Broadcom go public. Judul disertasi: x201CArchitectures, Teknik Optimasi, dan Implementasi VLSI untuk Synthesizers Frekuensi Digital Langsung. x201D) Ketika Nicholas Berada di TRW, dia bertemu dengan Stacey Feller, seorang insinyur listrik lima tahun lebih muda darinya. Dia dibesarkan di Los Angeles, dan orang-orang yang mengenalnya menggambarkannya sebagai kata-kata yang sama yang digunakan orang untuk menggambarkan Henry Samueli. Seperti Nicholas, dia tinggi dan kurus. Dia tampak tidak bersalah dan diam-diam. Seorang teman menggambarkannya sebagai atlet yang cukup atletis untuk mengikuti Nicholas dalam perjalanan bersepeda yang panjang. Pada tahun 1987, keduanya menikah. Pada tahun 1993, anak pertama couplex2019, Brett, lahir, diikuti oleh anak laki-laki kedua, Matthew, dan pada tahun 1998, seorang anak perempuan, Shelby. Pada tahun 1988, Samueli mulai berkonsultasi paruh waktu untuk perusahaan start up lainnya, PairGain Technologies. Dia membawa Nicholas masuk sebagai direktur mikro-elektronika. Nicholas adalah sosok yang kontroversial. Dia telah mengatakan bahwa dia meninggalkan PairGain karena perusahaan tersebut tidak ingin mengemukakan gagasannya. Tapi tiga mantan karyawan PairGain dengan pengetahuan tentang situasi tersebut mengatakan bahwa itu bukan keseluruhan cerita. PairGain menemukan bahwa Nicholas telah mulai menumbuhkan kepentingan bisnisnya sendiri pada saat perusahaan, kata mereka. Nicholas meninggalkan perusahaan itu, dia telah mengakui, x201Dengan banyak perasaan sulit di sekitarnya. x201D Man dan Superman Nicholas juga mengembangkan reputasi untuk arogansi ekstrem. Seorang karyawan PairGain biasa mengatakan bahwa dia yakin suatu hari dia akan mengambil koran dan melihat bahwa Nicholas telah ditemukan, setumpuk tulang dan daging, di dasar bangunan berlantai 10 bukan karena dia telah melakukan bunuh diri, tapi Karena dia sudah mencoba untuk terbang. Tapi mungkin seseorang dengan keyakinan tak terbatas pada dirinya sendiri untuk memulai Broadcom, yang bersaing dalam industri yang didominasi oleh Intelx2014 yang merupakan C. E.O. Andy Grove, menciptakan motto x201 Secara kebetulan, Paranoid Survive. x201D Nicholas, sejak awal, melakukan hal-hal dengan caranya sendiri. Dia mendasarkan perusahaan itu bukan di Silicon Valley, tempat orang lain berada, tapi di Orange County, daerah pinggiran kota yang basah kuyup di sebelah selatan Los Angeles. Pada saat kode berpakaiannya sangat santai, Nicholas mengenakan setelan tiga potong dan meminta orang lain juga mengenakan setelan Broadcom. Cara angkuhnya membuat beberapa analis Wall Street memanggilnya Nicholas Nicholas. Nicholas berkata pada orang lain di Broadcom bahwa dia tipe kepribadian langka yang oleh beberapa psikolog disebut tes kepribadian Myers-Briggs dan Keirsey, yang besar dalam MBA. Lingkaran, kelompok orang ke dalam 16 jenis kepribadian yang berbeda, yang Keirsey memberi label, seperti Penyembuh dan Masterminds Inspektur hanya menghasilkan 1 persen dari populasi.) Masterminds seharusnya menghitung perfeksionis yang memiliki sikap mengabaikan otoritas dan juga untuk Perasaan orang lain. Pengusaha besar umumnya memiliki fokus yang berpikiran tunggal, x201D mengatakan McNamee. Jika mereka tidak menyadari bahwa mungkin ada sudut pandang lain. x201D Setidaknya di tahun-tahun awal Broadcom, kesombongan Nicholasx2019s disertai, bahkan mungkin terlampaui, oleh etos pekerjaannya. Seseorang yang bekerja dengan Nicholas mengatakan bahwa ia tidur tiga atau empat jam semalam, maks. X201CNick terdorong untuk melakukan kesalahan, x201D mengatakan orang ini. Karena dia bekerja berjam-jam itu, dia bisa memberikan lebih banyak, lebih cepat, lebih baik daripada siapa pun. Nicholas suka memberi tahu pers tentang bagaimana pelatihan angkatan udaranya telah mengajarkannya untuk bertahan selama 78 jam hanya dengan beberapa jam tidur atau bagaimana dia Dan Stacey memutuskan untuk menginduksi kelahiran anak perempuan mereka sehingga dia bisa pergi untuk presentasi kepada investor saat Broadcom akan go public. Untuk ulang tahun pernikahan mereka yang ke 10, yang mereka rayakan di Grand Wailea Resort, di Maui, pada tahun 2000x2014 tiga tahun belakangan ini, Anthony mengundang para eksekutif sebuah perusahaan yang sedang dipertimbangkan untuk bergabung dengan mereka untuk makan malam. Satu hal yang akan membuat Anda bahagia adalah menetapkan tujuan, lalu bunuh diri untuk mencapainya, kemudian dia memberi tahu Fortune pada tahun 1999. x201CI memiliki teori bahwa kegembiraan yang Anda rasakan berbanding lurus dengan pengorbanan yang Anda buat. x201D Nicholas menuntut Tingkat devosi yang sama dari mereka yang bekerja untuk Broadcom. Seorang investor ingat akan bertemu di sana sekitar pukul sembilan pagi. Hanya ada segelintir mobil di tempat parkir, jadi dia bertanya apakah orang-orang bepergian. Dia diberitahu bahwa, tidak, biasanya orang datang sedikit kemudian dari tidur sebentar karena mereka sering bekerja sampai pukul enam atau tujuh pagi. Nicholas mengadakan pertemuan pada pukul tiga dini hari. Biasanya, dia mengadakan rapat setiap jam, setiap hari dalam seminggu, atas kemauannya. Dia suka memanggil frase militer, R. H.I. P. Atau x201CRank memiliki hak istimewanya. x201D Nicholas memerintah karena takut, bukan cinta. X201CHe bisa menjadi sangat jahat, x201D mengatakan seorang mantan karyawan. X201CHe seperti sersan bor. Hex2019d mendapatkan satu inci dari wajah Anda dan menggunakan tubuhnya untuk efek penuh dari apa yang bisa ditunjukkan oleh tubuh besar. x201D Sekali, pada pertemuan dua mingguan untuk para eksekutif, mantan staf ini ingat, Nicholas tidak senang dengan laporan asisten controllerx2019s. Jadi dia menggulung kertas-kertas itu ke sebuah bar tebal dan menampar pria itu di atas kepala dengan itu. Anda bisa menggambarkan pendekatan saya sebagai bumi hangus, Nicholas mengatakan kepada seorang reporter pada tahun 2000. x201Mungkin bisa brutal, tapi tugas saya adalah memastikan bahwa jika kita memasuki pasar, karyawan kita siap untuk melakukan pengorbanan dalam kehidupan mereka. Itu akan perlu untuk menang. x201D Dan Nicholas melakukan yang terbaik untuk melihat peran CEO alfa-laki-laki Berkat rejimen latihan yang agresif, dia mengeringkan tubuhnya, dan dia menumbuhkan kumis kutu buku kumis ke jenggot tepat saat janggut menjadi pinggul. Pada konferensi pers tahun 1999 yang mengumumkan sumbangan 1 juta lebih kepada University of California di tim kru Irvine, dia menantang kapten tim untuk mengikuti kontes pull-up saat ini. Nicholas menang. Dia adalah geek yang menjadi Superman. Jika ada unsur anak laki-laki remaja yang marah. Dia suka bercanda bahwa mereka hampir menamai perusahaan Broads, dan dia membual kepada reporter tentang kecintaannya pada band heavy metal seperti Metallica dan Kornx2014, pengusaha hebat seharusnya eksentrik. Saldo di Broadcom akan diberikan oleh Samueli, yang memimpin tim teknik. Analis saham menyebut kedua pria itu Henry Henry dan topi Henry, x201D atau x201Cwhite dan topi hitam. x201D Dalam sebuah wawancara tahun 2000, Samueli mengabaikan reputasi Nicholasx2019. X201CNickx2019s mendapatkan kepercayaan lebih untuk menjadi lebih kurang ajar, tidak ada pertanyaan, x201D katanya. Orang-orang menerimanya. Kita semua menerimanya. x201D Sebenarnya, tidak ada yang bisa mengendalikan Nicholas. Samueli, mengatakan banyak orang yang bekerja dengan mereka berdua, adalah kepribadian yang tidak konfrontatif. Seseorang ingat saat Nicholas masuk ke kantor Samuelix2019s, yang berada tepat di sebelah rumahnya sendiri. Dia marah karena sedikit pelanggaran, nyata atau imajiner, dan dia menyalahkannya pada Samueli seperti dia yang berusia lima tahun, x201D mengatakan orang ini. X201Itu adalah Setan dan pria yang baik, dan Setan menjalankan pertunjukan itu. Namun, semua sepertinya berhasil, setidaknya untuk sementara waktu. Nicholas sama seperti pemimpin kultus, pada saat istrinya, Stacey, diduga mengatakan pada salah satu asisten pribadinya. Cody Acree, seorang analis saham di Stifel Nicolaus, yang telah meliput Broadcom sejak tahun 2000, mengatakan bahwa akhir hari ini, pada saat membuat uang, dan jika dia memberikannya, maka sulit untuk dipertanyakan. Kebijakan Uang pasti merupakan bagian dari Alasan mengapa karyawan Broadcom mengalami kebrutalan Nicholasx2019. Pada saat itu Broadcom membayar gaji tinggi. Justru sebaliknya: ini menutup gaji pada 110.000, yang kurang dari pesaing yang dibayarkan. Tapi perusahaan membuat untuk itu dengan mata uang zaman: opsi saham. Pada satu titik di awal tahun 2000, Broadcom menawarkan seorang insinyur Intel yang ingin menyewa sebuah nilai 9 juta yang menakjubkan dari mereka, menurut sebuah tuntutan hukum yang diajukan Intel. Broadcom itu agresif karena opsi saham bukan rahasia, tapi mekanisme operasi yang tepat tentu tidak dipahami dengan baik oleh orang luar. Dalam banyak kasus, Broadcom memastikan bahwa pilihannya bernilai uang riil pada hari mereka dikabulkan, menuduh pemerintah. Mereka melakukannya dengan memilih hari di masa lalu dimana saham ditutup pada harga yang lebih rendah daripada tanggal pemberian dana. Sebuah insiden yang kemudian menjadi pusat tuduhan pemerintah tersebut melibatkan perekrutan seorang insinyur bernama Mehrdad Nayebi pada musim semi 1999. Nayebi mengklaim bahwa dia dijanjikan memberikan 120.000 opsi dengan harga 88.375, yang merupakan harga saham Broadcomx2019 saat perusahaan tersebut mulai serius. Tentang membuatnya tawaran. Tapi saat dia benar-benar bergabung dengan perusahaan itu, pilihannya malah di harga 95.75. Nayebi mengirimi e-mail Nancy Tullos, wakil presiden sumber daya manusia Broadcomx2019, untuk mengeluh, dengan mengatakan bahwa harga yang lebih rendah merupakan faktor penentu utama x201Cmajor dalam keputusannya untuk menerima pekerjaan di Broadcom. Menurut sebuah kesepakatan pembelaan yang kemudian ditandatangani oleh Tullos dengan pemerintah, pilihan Broadcomx2019 committeex2014 yang terdiri dari Henry Nicholas dan Henry Samuelix2014 menambahkan opsi Nayebi dengan harga lebih rendah. Nicholas, Komisi Sekuritas dan Bursa Efek kemudian akan menuduh, siapa pembuat keputusan x201Cfinal dan kekuatan pendorong di belakang pilihan Broadcomx2019. backend. x201D (pertahanan Samuelix2019s mempertahankan bahwa Samueli cukup mengandalkan manajemen dan profesional lainnya untuk mengurus yang benar Akuntansi pilihan) Ini semua akan baik-baik saja jika Broadcom telah mengatakan kepada pemegang saham apa yang dilakukannya. Berdasarkan peraturan yang disiksa yang mengatur akuntansi opsi saham pada saat itu, jika Anda memberikan opsi pada 10 saham, dan saham diperdagangkan pada 10 saham, Anda seharusnya tidak mencerminkan biaya kompensasi. Tetapi jika Anda memilih tanggal dua minggu di masa lalu karena persediaan terjual 6 hari itu, sehingga membuat opsi tersebut bernilai 4 pada hari karyawan mendapatkannya, Anda harus merefleksikan 4 dari biaya kompensasi dalam laporan keuangan Anda. Itu akan mengurangi keuntungan yang Anda laporkan, dan mungkin akan menghasilkan harga saham yang lebih rendah. Jika ada orang di dalam Broadcom yang berhenti sejenak untuk memikirkan apa yang sedang terjadi, mereka tidak berpikir, berbohong kepada para pemegang saham.4020 Mereka berpikir, x201CWEX2019 menciptakan Ekonomi Baru, dan kita layak mendapatkannya, x201D mengatakan seorang mantan karyawan. Tidak banyak yang berhenti berpikir. Pada bulan Agustus 2000, saham Broadcomx2019 mencapai 182,42 per saham, menilai perusahaan di atas lebih dari 60 miliar lebih tinggi dari nilai gabungan Amazon dan Yahoo hari ini dan membuat Henrys masing-masing bernilai lebih dari 10 miliar. The Orange County Register melaporkan bahwa rata-rata karyawan Broadcom bernilai 5,81 juta Tempat parkir penuh dengan Lamborghini dan Porsche. Henrys mulai tidak hanya menghabiskan uang tapi juga memberikannya. Samueli menyumbangkan 30 juta untuk sekolah teknik U. C.L. A.2020 dan 20 juta untuk U. C. Sekolah teknik Irvinex2019, yang keduanya dinamai untuk menghormatinya. Kemudian, Samueli dan istrinya, Susan, membayar 70 juta untuk Disney untuk tim hoki Anaheim Ducks. Nicholas mulai menyumbang pada kampanye politik. Dia telah menjadi salah satu donor besar Arnold Schwarzeneggerx2019. Dia membeli sebuah perusahaan penerbangan bernama Prestige Air, yang memiliki tiga jet dan sebuah helikopter. (Prestige Air became part of a lawsuit with the I. R.S. which contended that the Nicholases owed some 4.4 million in back taxes and penalties in part because they improperly wrote off the losses from Prestige Air.) Nicholas also bought toys, among them a Harley-Davidson and a black Lamborghini Diablo. And the Nicholases began to renovate their house. Since the mid-1990s, theyx2019d lived in one of the nicest areas of Laguna Hills, a neighborhood called Nellie Gail Ranch that features 20 miles of equestrian trails, and where a 5,000-square-foot house is considered small. A week after Broadcomx2019s I. P.O. they bought a much bigger property a few doors down in the same cul-de-sacx2014called Rodeo Circlex2014for 1.7 million. They immediately began a remodeling project. The initial budget was 400,000, but the projected bill would balloon to more than 30 million, according to a lawsuit the contractors drafted laterx2014and the project would become the physical manifestation of the dark fantasies in Nicholasx2019s mind. If You Build It, They Will Come Imagine, if you will, a secret warren of rooms filled with any amenity you could ask forx2014from top-of-the-line sound equipment to a Jacuzzix2014decorated in an extravagant style that could be described as Harem Fantasy Gone Wild. The ceilings are over 12 feet high. One room has a central column covered in 24-karat gold leaf. A series of large buttresses, also covered in gold, radiate from the central column, which in turn is surrounded by seating for 10. Fabulous materials and artifacts cover every square inch: brocade from Spain, lustrous red velvets, arches carved in India, statues of Buddha and Shiva, Persian rugs. One person who worked on the space is almost at a loss for words when asked to describe it. x201CIt was so over the top, x201D he says. x201CYou have never seen anything like it. x201D x201CNick wanted me to be as creative as possible, x201D says Russ Butler, the artist and designer who decorated the space. x201CMore and more was better. x201D He adds: x201CI wish the whole world could have seen it. x201D While the average investor in Broadcom never heard a whisper, by as early as 2000 the Wall Street community was rife with rumors about Nicholas. A story began to make the rounds that, during a meeting with a major investor, he had a nosebleedx2014which was interpreted as a symptom of a cocaine habit. Nicholasx2019s former assistant at Broadcom, a woman named Beth Kuhns, told the F. B.I. that when she began working for him, in 1998, he was x201Ccontrolling and detail-oriented, x201D and required her to work x201Clong and intense hours, x201D but was otherwise normal. But, she said, he soon began requiring her to withdraw cash from his bank account. He wanted to have at least 10,000 in a locked desk in his office or in a black bag that he carried with him. Once, he gave her an envelope with x201Cthousands of dollars in cash in it and directed her to meet a woman in Broadcomx2019s offices. x201D The woman took the envelope and gave Kuhns another, which, in its drug-trafficking indictment, the government says contained x201Ccontrolled substances. x201D While the governmentx2019s contention that his drug use amounted to a narcotics conspiracyx2014i. e. distributing drugsx2014has not been proved, it is hard to deny that Nicholas has used drugs. Maybe his problems were brought on by his desire to operate at a superhuman pace. Maybe, as one person who hung out with him says, x201Chis money came too fast and it opened the door to things he wanted. He was married, he had kids, but he saw something else out there that money could get him. He was kind of a geeky dude. I donx2019t see him going out with girls in high school, and now here he is with the world at his feet. x201D Or maybe a woman named Mirjana Dumnjak, who knew Nicholas during this period, puts it best. x201CYou know what they say about borderline geniusesx201D she asks. x201CTheyx2019re also borderline crazy. x201D Whatever it was, Nicholas changed quickly. Within about a year and half of Broadcomx2019s I. P.O. he went from what one neighbor says was a x201Csuper-nice guy who just wanted to make friendsx201D and who had barbecues in his backyard to someone who was x201Cjust out there. x201D Says this person, x201CI think hex2019s a victim of bad judgment and bad friends. x201D Whether his friends were a bad influence or not, it is true that Nicholas started hanging out with some new people at that time. Among them was a charismatic contractor named Roman James, who began the renovation project at the Nicholasesx2019 in the spring of 1998. (James is Dumnjakx2019s ex-boyfriend.) At the time, James was in his early 30s and almost as tall as Nicholas. He is a good-looking man with dark hair and blue eyes, an easy charm, and a quick wit. He may not have had much money, but Dumnjak and other beautiful women would stop by his various jobs. Hex2019d designed a neighborx2019s pool, which Nicholas admired, and he talked his way past the New York and London architecture firms that Nicholas was going to hire. He also began to work on Henry Samuelix2019s home. Nicholas and James, along with another man, Bill Nutton, who had met James while both were working in Las Vegas, began to hang out together. James gave Nicholas advice on how to be more cool, says one person, who adds that Nicholas had a x201Cboy crushx201D on James. Dumnjak says that James, in turn, decided he could be Nicholasx2019s x201Cparty adviser, x201D as she puts it, not merely his contractor. (Of course, Nicholas wasnx2019t in the habit of taking advice from others. x201COnce he got out in the world, he approached going out like a hostile takeover, x201D says a person who spent time with him.) In a declaration taken in a lawsuit filed later, Nutton said that he, Nicholas, and James began riding Nicholasx2019s Harley-Davidsons together and x201Cpartying quite extensively, x201D both at the jobsite and on frequent excursions. They took Nicholasx2019s plane to Las Vegas, where Nicholas eventually acquired a condominium on the 32nd floor of Turnberry Place. Nicholas even bought James a car: a red Ferrari. The contractor, says one observer, x201Cwas living very high on the hog. x201D Dumnjak, who says that she accompanied the men to Las Vegas on one occasion, recalls that when Nicholas hired prostitutes he x201Cwas like a guy who hasnx2019t eaten in 10 days and finally saw a steak. x2026 He was kissing them like a high-school guy would kiss his girlfriend. x201D According to Dumnjak, she once asked him why he behaved this way, given his family and his apparent respect for his wife. (x201CHe was always very complimentary of her, x201D she says.) x201CI love my wife, but itx2019s just something I want to do, x201D he replied. James and Nutton werenx2019t the only members of Nicholasx2019s growing entourage. He hired Craig Gunther, a U. C.L. A.-trained engineer who had a law degree, to manage his personal affairs and money. Within a few years, Gunther and his wife moved into what had been the Nicholasesx2019 first house on Rodeo Circle. In the fall of 1999, Nicholas also hired as his personal assistant a young man named Kenji Kato, who was getting his joint M. B.A. and J. D. from Pepperdine University, in Malibu. Kato helped arrange what he described as x201Clavish events, dinners, concerts, parties fit for only Billionaires. x201D As part of a lawsuit he would later file, Kato observed that x201Cit was normal for him Nicholas to attempt to have sex with as many women as possible. x201D It seems that Nicholas eventually became disillusioned with some of the people who wanted to be his friends. In 2004, he told a reporter, x201CThere is a whole cottage industry of parasites who make it their business to be friends of billionaires. The problem is that because they have an agenda, they are often better with you than your real friends, who donx2019t know how to act with you anymore. x201D But that was later, and for a short period it was all just a party. To celebrate his 40th birthday, in October 1999, Nicholas paid the band Orgyx2014an L. A.-based group that described itself as x201Cnu Metalx201Dx201450,000 to play. He had a huge stage built at the Rodeo Circle house. There were gigantic ice sculptures, and the guests included bankers, lawyers, people from the neighborhood, and what one attendee describes as x201Cwomen by themselves dressed scantily with a lot of makeup. x201D x201CIt was the most surreal scene ever, x201D says another attendee. Before the party, according to one pal, Nicholas bragged that nine different women he was datingx2014none of whom knew about the othersx2014were coming. At one point, he jumped up on the stage, ripped off his shirtx2014x201CHex2019s cut and he knows it, x201D says another attendeex2014and sang with the band. He had one request: x201CMy birthday present from you all to me: Please forget this night. x201D Stacey didnx2019t appear to relish her new lifestyle. She did have breast implants, say three people who know her. x201CShe was trying to be more of the cool chick, x201D says Dumnjak. But Stacey, whom everyone describes as unpretentious, refused to drive her new Mercedes, instead sticking with an old forest-green Chrysler minivan. She still shopped at Target, and told one person that shex2019d trade it all in to be back in the condominium in Redondo Beach and have her husband home the way he used to be. Therex2019s a twist to Nicholasx2019s story, according to some of the allegations against him, that makes it something darker than a tale of a man whose personal eccentricities got the better of him. The government and former employees allege that he thought he could use drugs and prostitutes to get an advantage in business. As prosecutor Andrew Stolper put it, Nicholas was x201Cnot in the business of making a living by dealing drugs. He was in the business of using drugs for his business. x201D Kenji Kato, who helped organize events for Broadcom, also alleged in his lawsuit that he would see Nicholas put x201Cpowdered ecstasy pills into the drinks of his customers. I would see him usually carefully measure the dosage. x2026 I had to look the other way when Nicholas secretly x2018spikedx2019 clients, prospective clients and third partiesx2019 drinks with illegal drugs. x201D Mehrdad Nayebix2014the engineer who was granted the stock optionsx2014contended in a draft lawsuit in late 2000 that Nicholas also x201Chad a practice of hiring prostitutes to x2018greetx2019 visiting customers, other business associates, and for himself. x201D Nicholas called the prostitutes x201Cprofessional saleswomen, x201D says another person who did business with Broadcom. One former executive recalls getting out of the elevator at Broadcomx2019s offices and saying to himself, x201CShex2019s a prox201D He adds, x201CI felt like I just walked out of a Las Vegas nightclub. Am I really on the third floor of an office building in Irvinex201D Dumnjak says that Nicholas used to tell her that x201CI can do all this stuff and be productive the next day. x201D But if Superman could do that once, he soon began to slip. His assistant, Beth Kuhns, told the F. B.I. that he began to x201Cdisappear for periods of time and miss important meetings. x201D She would x201Creceive incoherent calls x2026 where he would speak nonsensex201D to her. She eventually couldnx2019t take it anymore and hired a lawyer to arrange her exit from the company. But, Kuhns claimed, when she met with Gunther and Nicholas to negotiate a settlement, their behavior was so erratic that her lawyer called off the meeting. Kuhns and her lawyer instead worked out a settlement with Broadcom, separate from Gunther and Nicholas. In June 2002, Kuhns left Broadcom, which paid her 1 million of shareholdersx2019 money in exchange for her silence, according to prosecutors. As for Mehrdad Nayebi, he was fired (for x201Cincompetence, x201D according to a Nicholas lawyer), but he too got money: stock options worth over 7 million at the timex2014again, money that came out of shareholdersx2019 pocketsx2014also with the provision that he keep his allegations quiet. (Broadcom has noted that it routinely includes confidentiality provisions in employment agreements, and has said that the core of each of these settlements had nothing to do with allegations about Nicholas.) Nicholasx2019s company was also slipping by this timex2014badly. The dot-com bubble had burst in 2000, and what Nicholas later called the x201Cworst downturn in semiconductor historyx201D was well under way. Broadcom lost money in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Its stock pricex2014as high as 182.42 on August 24, 2000x2014began to plummet and eventually hit a low of 6.47 on October 7, 2002. One board member later told The Wall Street Journal that x201Cno one was really at the wheel. x201D But if neither Broadcomx2019s performance nor Nayebix2019s and Kuhnsx2019s accusations jolted the board into action, something else may have. They found out about the lair. It had started innocently enough. Dumnjak claims it was her idea for a tunnel leading down to a series of interconnecting rooms between the housex2019s library and the gym, where Nicholas was building a 2,000-square-foot sports bar he would call Nickx2019s CafxE9. In the library, which was decorated in dark custom-carved woods and green granite, a hinged panel opened toward the passageway. The tunnel, says Butler, had a x201Ccoolness factorx201D: the faux stone walls had impressions of skulls carved into niches, which were lit by candelabras. x201CIt was that castle-y look that guys like, x201D he says. Butler, who still counts Nicholas as a friend, says that in 2000, after a wild party was shut down by neighborsx2019 complaints, the project was expanded to create a place where Nicholas could carouse in private. Butler agreed to comment for this story because he is upset that his work, which he says was x201Cbeautiful, x201D is being described as a sex lair. But in their lawsuit, the contractors alleged it was exactly that. In August 2000, they said, Nicholas decided, unbeknownst to his wife, to expand the tunnel into a x201Csecret and convenient lair in which he could indulge his appetite for illegal drugs and sex with prostitutes. x201D Building the lair presented an engineering challenge because the Nicholasesx2019 house is on a hill that cuts sharply down toward the horse trail behind the house. Nicholas grew frustrated with the slow pace of the secret construction, and he took Stacey to Hawaii for a weekx2019s vacation. During that time, hundreds of men worked around the clock. The contractors designed a multitude of entrances and exits, says one person familiar with the construction: a staircase in the sports bar that lifted up, Munsters - like an entrance covered by rock near the wine cellar even an exit onto the horse trail, disguised by a faux shed made to resemble other manure-pickup sites on the trail. Not surprisingly, neighbors, who had grown impatient with the construction, began to complain, particularly when they found their access to the horse trail blocked by armed guards. Says one, who thought maybe a helicopter pad was being built, x201CIt was hard to miss that something was going on, but no one knew what. x201D They called Laguna Hills city officials, who discovered that there was no permit for the construction. The project was promptly shut down. When a Los Angeles Times reporter called Nicholas about the neighborsx2019 complaints, he explained he was building a pump house to deal with water overflow along the horse trail. x201CI wanted to make the horse trail around our property the nicest in the whole community, x201D he told the reporter. When construction was halted, Nicholas, say the contractors, decided to build a backup. He rented space in a warehouse in a gritty industrial district of auto-body shops about a five-minute drive from his house. Inside, he had the contractors build an exact replica of what he wanted under the Rodeo Circle house. Because the space under his house was irregularly shaped, the contractors even built out the rectangular warehouse space to identical irregular specifications, says one person familiar with the work. This was the Ponderosa, or x201Cthe Pond, x201D as it came to be known. According to Butler, who says the dxE9cor was inspired in part by his visit to Burma, a visitor would enter through a passageway where the ceilings were tented with fabrics. Jewel-like hanging lamps spotlighted a large brass statue of Ganesh. Then you would step down into a large octagonal room dominated by a central column. The ceiling of that room was a gilt lattice with a star pattern, backlit with sophisticated lighting that could strobe and change color. Butler used mostly red and gold in the decorating scheme because, he says, it was x201Cmasculine and very imperial. x201D There was a flat-screen TV that was one of the largest available at the time, and a bar made from an antique European buffet re-covered in granite. Nicholas came to like the Pond so much that he kept it. And while Butler says it was an innocent spotx2014he describes it as a x201Csymbiosis between spirituality and technologyx201Dx2014others view it a little differently. The government alleges that Nicholas x201Chosted numerous partiesx201D at the Pond x201Cduring which he supplied controlled substances such as cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana to his guests. x201D The contractors called it Nicholasx2019s x201Cown personal brothel. x201D There was just one rule for those who came to party at the Pond, says one person: you couldnx2019t leave before Nicholas did. It was at the Pond that Stacey caught Nicholas, according to the contractors. They said that Nicholas took her to Beaver Creek, Colorado, where the family owned a condominium, for vacation in May 2002. He left early, blaming work, and headed to the Pond. Stacey returned home, too. Shex2019d found out about the Pondx2014it wouldnx2019t have been hard for a smart wife to figure out something was up with her husbandx2014and she headed over. There she x201Ccaught Nicholas having sex with a prostitute while high on drugs, x201D said the contractors, in a red-and-gold room with a carved wooden ceiling and a gigantic bed. She filed for divorce. Soon, a furious wife wasnx2019t Nicholasx2019s only problem. In the fall of 2002, a group of seven contractors who had worked on the project, including James, hired a lawyer to draft a lawsuit against Nicholas. The contractors contended that Nicholas used x201Cmanipulation, lies, intimidation, and even death threatsx201D to stiff them on the bulk of the money they were due. He also allegedly told them hex2019d have them killed if they ever talked about him or the work they did. The lawsuit wouldnx2019t become public until years later. Broadcomx2019s shareholders never knew. But Broadcomx2019s board did, because the contractors also named Samueli and Broadcom itself in the lawsuit. Perhaps they thought that the pressure those parties would bring to bear on Nicholas increased their chances of getting paid, and it seems it did. James Traut, the lawyer for the contractors, recalls an emergency Sunday-afternoon meeting with lawyers for Nicholas, who had just returned from celebrating his birthday in Spain. Nicholas settled the complaint for roughly 3 million, says one person. Paying the Piper On January 23, 2003, Nicholas announced his resignation to investors on a conference call. x201CEffective today I have resigned as president and C. E.O. of Broadcom. This has been a difficult personal decision for me, and one that has been driven entirely by personal issues relating to my family separation and divorce. x201D That was no lie. After all, Nicholas did have serious family issues. But it doesnx2019t appear to be the whole truth, either. Some members of Broadcomx2019s board had grown disillusioned with Nicholas due to his performance, and the company started exploring the idea of looking for a new C. E.O. in the fall of 2002. In November, Broadcom appointed a board member, Alan E. x201CLannyx201D Ross, as interim chief operating officer. Within a few weeks of Rossx2019s arrival, the company laid off 500 people to cut costs. Around the same time, it found out about the contractorsx2019 suit. Nicholas took time off in December and January before finally announcing his departure in late January. Publicly, Nicholas and Stacey talked about reconciling, but in 2006, divorce proceedings began in earnest again. She stayed in the Rodeo Circle house. The lair was demolished. Nicholas moved to a Tuscan-style mansion in a gated community in Newport Coast, just to the north of Laguna. The divorce has clearly been acrimonious, which isnx2019t surprising, given that the two have to divvy up, among other assets, 32.9 million shares of Broadcom, worth more than 720 million at the time of this writing. The divorce file has been sealed, but according to the Los Angeles Times, it contains x201Ccompeting allegations of drug abuse and infidelity. x201D In 2006, Nicholas filed a petition alleging that Stacey had formed a company called Captain Enterprises x201Cto compete directlyx201D with several companies Nicholas owned. These new companies existed to manage Stacey and Nicholasx2019s personal affairs. Nicholas accused Stacey of hiring his people and requested that she not waste the assets of their joint trust. The petition was eventually dismissed. Nicholas seems to have continued on a downward spiral after leaving Broadcom. Kenji Kato, in his lawsuit against Nicholas, alleged that over the seven years he worked for Nicholas he struggled with Nicholasx2019s x201Cincreasingly abusive and intolerable conductx201D as his x201Csexual cravings and drugs overpowered his life. x201D He said, x201CAt times, Nick could not remember what he ordered me to do the day before x2026 his thought processes were impeded by his constant drug abuse. x201D Kato added, x201CIt was very sad to see him like this, the Nick that I first met was much stronger and healthier than the person I ultimately came to work for. x201D Like some of the other members of Nicholasx2019s entourage, Kato doesnx2019t seem to be a saint. He has admitted that he has used drugs, too, although he claims that the x201Cfirst time I used cocaine was when Nick shoved a tiny spoon up my nose because I was falling asleep while he was talking to me. x201D After he quit working for Nicholas, in the spring of 2006, his lawyer presented a demand for 9 million, telling Nicholas that, if he did not agree, Kato would go public with his allegations. Nicholas appeared to settle the suit for 3 million but then backed out of the negotiations and filed his own lawsuit against Kato alleging extortion and asking for a restraining order. Kato ended up filing his case anyway, in November 2006. Four other people who worked for Nicholas filed supporting declarations in Katox2019s lawsuit, all of which paint a sordid picture of life at the Newport Coast house during 2005 and 2006. Gerald Wada, who worked for Nicholas for four months in 2006, says that he was regularly x201Cordered to fill up up to 20 balloons of nitrous oxide and deliver them to Dr. Nicholas, or when I was required to clean up after Dr. Nicholas, I frequently found remnants of usage of drugs, such as a straw and plate, residue of cocaine, nitrous oxide balloons, and alcohol. x201D Todd Murakami, who was Nicholasx2019s personal assistant and security guard during that same period, says that he would regularly x201Cfind bloody Kleenex around the house. Wex2019d have to buy him Saline by the case to rinse his nose out. x201D But it would be misleading to say that Nicholas has no supporters. Because of Marsaleex2019s murder, he had thrown himself passionately into the cause of criminal justice, and there is a lot of loyalty to him among the community of people who have lost loved ones to homicide. His biggest battle was in the fall of 2004, when California was about to pass a law known as Proposition 66. It would have limited the statex2019s x201Cthree strikesx201D rule, by which someone who has been convicted of two violent crimes can be sentenced to life for a third felony. Thatx2019s when Nicholas, at his motherx2019s urging, got to know Steve Ipsen, a veteran prosecutor who was doing his best to thwart Proposition 66. The measure looked like it was going to pass until Nicholas got involvedx2014the weekend before the Tuesday, November 2, vote. x201CWhen Nick is into something, hex2019s into it, x201D says Ipsen, and indeed, over a frantic weekend, the two men cut a deal to take over the radio airwavesx2014paid for by some 3 million of Nicholasx2019s moneyx2014and put together two ads. Nicholas even sent his plane to Oakland to get former California governor Jerry Brown to record an ad. The ballot issue, which was supposed to pass by a considerable margin, didnx2019t. x201CThe truth is: he did it, x201D says Ipsen about Nicholas. A few years later, on September 25, 2007, Nicholas flew his private jet to Soledad for the parole hearing of Kerry Michael Conley, who was convicted in 1985 of the murder of Marsalee. At least 100 members of victimsx2019 groups also protested Conleyx2019s parole in front of the prison. (The parole was denied, and Conley died last winter in prison.) On the way home, Ipsen introduced Nicholas to a woman named Shari Martin, whose son had been murdered, and who was starting her own chapter of a group for relatives of homicide victims. Nicholas promptly wrote her a check for 10,000. x201CI didnx2019t ask, x201D she says. x201CHe volunteered it. x201D She sees a very different Henry Nicholas. x201CThe man is a genius, but he comes down to our level, x201D she says. Among other awards, Nicholas has received the Ronald Reagan Award for Pioneering Achievement in Criminal Justice. Therex2019s a chance that the allegations about the seamier side of Nicholasx2019s life would have remained gossip behind the Orange Curtain, as some residents call Orange County, masked by his charitable work, his money, and his army of lawyers, had it not been for something about as far removed from sex and drugs as you can imagine: accounting. Part of the ugly aftermath of the dot-com boom has been a massive government investigation into charges that many companies, such as Broadcom, accounted inaccurately for the stock options they doled out. Thus far, nearly 200 companies have disclosed that they engaged in so-called stock-options backdating, in which they granted options at a date in the past without telling shareholders they were doing so. Roughly two dozen executives have been charged with committing fraud. In a high-profile case, Greg Reyes, who was the C. E.O. of a technology company called Brocade Communications, was convicted of fraud last January and sentenced to 21 months in jail. In some quarters, particularly in Silicon Valley, there is the attitude that the government is trying to criminalize accounting sloppiness, and that, anyway, entrepreneurs like Nicholas create such value that they should be given a pass. x201CItx2019s like after the gold rush in America, trying to enforce trespassing laws, x201D says Ipsen. x201CImagine what America could be like if Broadcom, Apple, and the other 250 companies now accused of backdating options didnx2019t exist Where would we bex201D There are others who argue, however, that there is a simple word for taking something from shareholders without telling them youx2019re taking it: theft. And if itx2019s theft, then by one measure, there is no company in America whose executives allegedly stole on as grand a scale as Broadcom did. In June 2006, Broadcom announced that it had received an informal inquiry into its stock-option practices from the Securities and Exchange Commission. At the end of that year, the company announced the results of its internal investigation. It conceded that x201Ccertain executives and employees selected numerous grant dates after the fact. x201D Then, on January 23, 2007x2014four years after Nicholasx2019s departurex2014Broadcom announced that it would take total charges of 2.2 billion in order to account for the cost of the options. That is the largest charge taken by any U. S. company that has been caught up in the options scandal. Broadcom laid the blame on Bill Ruehle, who had resigned as C. F.O. that fall due to the stock-option review former human-resources vice president Nancy Tullos and Nicholas, who, the company said, x201Cbears significant responsibility for the lack of adequate controls in the option granting process due to the tone and style of doing business he set. x201D Itx2019s hard to see how what happened at Broadcom could be chalked up to mere sloppiness, argues the government. In 2000, for instance, the government says that Ruehle and Nicholas were informed by Broadcomx2019s accountants that they might have to take a big stock-option-related charge. Ruehle told Nicholas, x201CObviously, we are not about to let this happen. x201D And you can see why: if Broadcom had properly reflected the costs, according to the S. E.C. complaint, its 2000 operating income would have been reduced by 442 million. Itx2019s true that Nicholas himself was Broadcomx2019s largest shareholder, so the practice hurt him too. But itx2019s also true that he sold more than 1 billion of his Broadcom stock during this period. It was inevitable that prosecutors would start poking around Nicholasx2019s personal life, given the ample rumors. By the spring of 2007, Nicholas knew that investigators were asking questions. Thatx2019s when, on a trip to Oakland on one of his private jets, he took personal adviser Craig Gunther to the back of the plane and, according to prosecutors, accused him of wearing a wire and working with the feds. Gunther told the F. B.I. that Nicholas had said he would x201Cchase him to the ends of the earthx201D if he x201Cscrewed himx201Dx2014and then struck him in the face. (Nicholasx2019s lawyers contest this. Although they acknowledge there was an x201Cincident, x201D they say they donx2019t accept that x201Cthere was sic threats made. x201D) Gunther, it seems, wasnx2019t cooperating. In fact, that August, prosecutors charged him with a somewhat obscure crime: avoiding currency-reporting regulations that require a bank to file a report when more than 10,000 is withdrawn from an accountx2014in this case, by repeatedly cashing checks to Nicholasx2019s account for just under the limit. That is, says the government, x201Cconsistent with someone purchasing substantial quantities of narcotics. x201D Indeed, from early 2006 to early 2007, one employee wrote 129 checks on Nicholasx2019s account, payable to cash, for a cumulative 689,685.42. Only a few were for over 10,000. Almost all were signed by Gunther. Many were cashed only minutes apart. It was a sign of Nicholasx2019s belief in his own invincibility or perhaps of his addiction that he apparently continued using drugs even after he knew he was under investigation. A video surreptitiously taken of him in Las Vegas on July 24, 2007, shows him looking disheveled in slacks and a button-down shirt open to mid-chest. He appears to be snorting cocaine at a desk in an ornate bedroom with carved-wood mirrors and a carved-wood headboard. At one point, a slender woman wearing a sports bra walks in. (Nicholasx2019s lawyers have said that the video represents x201Cone incident of recreational drug abuse. x201D) Prosecutors got wind of another suspicious incident that occurred in the fall of 2007. On November 24, Nicholas, driving his Lamborghini along Newport Coast Drive with his son in the car, crashed into a light pole with such force that he sheared it at the base. Nicholas left the scene, and his bodyguardx2014a former navy seal named Stephen x201COtterx201D Otten, who had won a Bronze Star for his duty in Fallujah and Baghdadx2014told the police that he had been driving. He later expensed his ticket to Nicholas. The truth might not have come out but for an anonymous tipster who, saying he had worked for Nicholas, called the police. Nicholas, he said, x201Cwas a very powerful man, x201D and he feared retribution. Today, when you drive through Broadcomx2019s parking lot in the late morning, itx2019s filled with employeesx2019 cars, and the cars are staid and serious. Revenues have more than tripled since Nicholasx2019s departure, and the company now has over 4,000 patentsx2014more than 15 times the number it had when Nicholas left. Under its new C. E.O. Scott McGregor, the company has made a big bet that it will be able to crack the cell-phone market, which could once again make Broadcom a hot, high-growth company, says analyst Cody Acree. But its success is far from assured, and at this point Nicholasx2019s legacy is not helping. Nancy Tullos has pleaded guilty in the stock-option case and is cooperating with prosecutors. The company paid 12 million to settle S. E.C. charges that it falsified its books, and has had to set up a special litigation committee to deal with all of the shareholder lawsuits coming its way. Henry Samueli pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the S. E.C. He told the commission that he had no role in granting stock options, which was not true. He agreed to pay a 12 million fine and struck a deal with prosecutors for five years of probation, but the judge overseeing his and Nicholasx2019s case rejected the deal. x201CThe 12 million payment, x201D wrote the judge, x201Csuggests that Dr. Samuelix2019s wealth and popularity will allow him to avoid the consequences of his alleged misconduct at Broadcom. The court cannot accept a plea agreement that gives the impression that justice is for sale. x201D It is unclear what will happen next. Samueli has had to step down as Broadcomx2019s chairman and take a leave from the board, has been indefinitely suspended from the National Hockey League as the owner of the Anaheim Ducks, and is facing the removal of his name from the U. C.L. A. and U. C. Irvine schools of engineering. As for Nicholas, he is out of Cliffside Malibu and living in another Tuscan-style Newport Coast mansion, which he bought from Marie and Robert Gray, the founders of St. John Knits, for 19.5 million. His travel is restricted to the central district of California. He has burned through lawyers but, in this case, he seems to have settled on his own Perry Mason: Brendan Sullivan, the Williams amp Connolly lawyer who defended Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North in the Iran-contra case, among other high-profile clients. Sullivan claims that the questions presented to him for comment were x201Crife with inaccuraciesx201D and that x201CDr. Nicholas intends to defend himself in court, however, not in the pages of Vanity Fair. x201D All signs say that Henry Nicholas will go to trial. If hex2019s found guilty of all the charges, he could spend many years in jail. You could argue that it was all necessary, that if Nicholas wasnx2019t such an extremist he also wouldnx2019t have built such a successful company. Or maybe not. Says one former executive, x201CCould he have done what he did without the insanity I think he could have. He had a wife and kids and a wonderful company, and he let a piece of him take over. x201D A few years ago, Nicholas, in a moment of self-reflection, said, x201CAll Ix2019ve done is make money. Ix2019ve achieved none of my goals. x201D Now therex2019s a chance he never will. Maybe the cartoon characters Calvin and Hobbes sum it up best: x201CDo you believe in the Devilx201D Calvin asks. x201CYou know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of manx201D Replies Hobbes, x201CIx2019m not sure that man needs the help. x201D Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor.
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