Broadcom co-founder allegedly spiked tech execs' drinks, had "warehouse" of coke and meth

We've never really thought of Broadcom as being anything more than a fairly boring chip supplier, but apparently there's some glitz in the silicon game: co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III is currently in FBI custody after being indicted on charges of spiking other tech execs' drinks and maintaining a "warehouse for ecstasy, cocaine, and methamphetamine." The charges are in addition to another indictment charging Nicholas and former Broadcom CFO William J. Ruehle with conspiracy, securities fraud, and options backdating, and a civil suit alleging that Nicholas, Ruehle, co-founder Henry Samueli and general counsel David Dull falsified Broadcom's reported income. There's not a lot of details out there yet about who Nicholas was slipping mickeys too, but we're certain there's a lot of dirt waiting to get out -- expect this one to become an even bigger circus than the Stefan-and-Dieter Gizmondo show.

[dBs @ Jun 5th 2008 4:09PM]

Naughty naughty! Go to your corner!

[Flashpoint @ Jun 5th 2008 4:22PM]

Cocaine's a helluva drug.

[dBs @ Jun 5th 2008 4:25PM]

Yes, well nerds are the new movie stars.

[kjb434 @ Jun 5th 2008 4:47PM]

Cocaine:

"Why use the South Beach Diet when you can use the South American one?"

I love it......

[NG @ Jun 5th 2008 5:26PM]

What.. where, there is a line around my corner too?

[Ben @ Jun 5th 2008 5:28PM]

@kjb434: Haha you have no idea. Cocaine IS the real South Beach diet.

[Shadowise @ Jun 5th 2008 4:13PM]

who knew the techy underworld was so seedy.

[Rob A @ Jun 5th 2008 4:16PM]

Who knew? Anyone that's been following the "tech world" over the last decade would have fond memories of a shattered, priceless ferrari, a child pornography ring centered around a tech executive, numerous gay sexual assaults and intimidation suits, and more. Read F*dCompany archives for the real dirt.

[Vammo @ Jun 24th 2008 9:08AM]

I'm with you my first IT manager scolded me for working too hard at work and then confided in me that she would procrastinate for weeks and then get it all done in a few days straight while binging on meth.

Somedays she'd even call me into work (worked from home 90% of the time) just to pick her up for lunch so she could down a few vodkas to calm her down before a meeting.

Now if only she had been hot, too. Then I could have submitted this comment to penthouse forum.

[Homeboy @ Jun 5th 2008 4:14PM]

Creepy picture. He looks like a rapist/serial killer being ushered into to court.

[Skullgrl @ Jun 5th 2008 4:22PM]

Took the text right out from under my fingers.
(Or a child molester perhaps.)

[OneLove @ Jun 5th 2008 4:26PM]

They should have known better than to eat and drink with him:

http://flickr.com/photos/pinguino/2543609793/

[Zach @ Jun 5th 2008 5:26PM]

how rude. they deleted my comment haha. ;)

[MeatPop @ Jun 5th 2008 4:27PM]

A "warehouse" of meth, ecstasy, and cocaine? Damn how do you hide something like that?

[OneLove @ Jun 5th 2008 4:31PM]

...in a warehouse.

[waddaya @ Jun 5th 2008 4:39PM]

In a whorehouse.

[BigD145 @ Jun 5th 2008 4:28PM]

Wow, that came out of left field.

[tekdroid @ Jun 5th 2008 10:46PM]

I think this explains the lack of Linux support.

[CharlieX @ Jun 5th 2008 4:29PM]

He's trying to get that Chuck Norris look going

[waddaya @ Jun 5th 2008 4:37PM]

Since he has that Chuck Norris look he doesn't need to worry about dropping his soap in prison.

[dzhiurgis @ Jun 5th 2008 4:36PM]

Cocoa & snow leopard anyone?

[Engadgetluvsappl @ Jun 5th 2008 4:37PM]

I do not approve of the new picture.

[Zach @ Jun 5th 2008 5:37PM]

i agree. the one before with that creepy ass (i won't say it engadget) smile was much much better.

[Lloyder @ Jun 5th 2008 4:39PM]

When High-speed internet can't go fast enough.

[Steffen Jobbs @ Jun 5th 2008 4:40PM]

So, how do you get in on this gig. Is Broadcom still hiring warehouse help?

[bolezhinkov @ Jun 5th 2008 5:08PM]

yeah! sign me up! I will make chips until the end of time.

[digitallysick @ Jun 5th 2008 4:45PM]

I guess thats why he never made the time for linux drivers!

[NoIdent @ Jun 5th 2008 4:46PM]

Funny, last summer I was talking to a guy who worked there and he had mentioned making good money from stock option backdating and how they used to do it before they "realized" it was illegal. I was wondering if it would ever catch up.

[bsm0f0 @ Jun 5th 2008 4:56PM]

That guy was probably the same Production Director in my management meeting in 2000 when someone asked him where 3.5 million dollars worth of inventory might have gone.

His response was "What? Can't we just put a 0 on the balance sheet?"

[Smudgy @ Jun 5th 2008 11:47PM]

Improper business ethics for the win!

[retro77 @ Jun 5th 2008 4:48PM]

Ouch!

[Gavin @ Jun 5th 2008 4:49PM]

The secret ingredients that makes their new chips the superfast rock stars of the industry have been discovered.

If you call the helpdesk will they book your PC into rehab?

[Kaiser-Machead @ Jun 5th 2008 4:52PM]

Big woop. You should've seen what the guys at ILM used to snort off of motherboards back in the 90's.

[Tod @ Jun 5th 2008 4:56PM]

Heh...30 million dollar "sex cave" under his laguna hills property. Those billionaires sure do know how to party !!!

[Najakwa @ Jun 5th 2008 5:18PM]

oh i love the new picture. should say blowcom though.

[AKBlade13 @ Jun 5th 2008 5:21PM]

A hundred dollars bills look *achoo* *achoo*

A hundred dollars bills look *achoo* *achoo*

In all seriousness, that's not good.

AKBlade13

[kal326 @ Jun 5th 2008 5:22PM]

Maybe there was just a little misunderstanding when they said that they really needed more speed and it all went down hill from there....

[undacova @ Jun 5th 2008 5:35PM]

This explains why their products suck ass, they spent all their R&D money on blow...

[Shane @ Jun 5th 2008 5:55PM]

My sentiments exactly...I have a server with an onboard dual port Broadcom NIC that absolutely sucks. I ended up using an Intel server NIC instead and solved all of the issues.

[JPN @ Jun 5th 2008 5:41PM]

And I do believe the original story says he spiked the drinks with ecstasy, which is hilarious on so many levels - but hey I bet he closed most deals, and I'm sure the next day they couldn't figure out why they gave him such a good deal....

[thomas Whatley @ Jun 5th 2008 6:25PM]

art imitating life?
ryan on the season finale of the office?
anyone?

[Mechad @ Jun 5th 2008 7:16PM]

I should have know something was up when some friends of mine were being paid $30/hr to basically hang out at his house.

[Stefan @ Jun 5th 2008 7:20PM]

Its too bad. Ive met the guy and i know his kids and people who work for him. hes a really nice guy and donates alot to our school, our whole entire theater department would be nothing without him, not to mention all the other donations hes made to the school.

[Bosco @ Jun 5th 2008 11:27PM]

That's a great way to pick up chicks too!

[ill trooper @ Jun 5th 2008 7:22PM]

Some people like to party.

[david sutherland @ Jun 6th 2008 3:43AM]

I worked at Bluetorch TV - Broadcom's venture into interactive television (Broadcom Interactive Group / BIG) -- read on f*ckedcompany.com all the legit griping to hear what Bluetorch did to the SoCal sports paper trade -- anyway... towards the very end of Bluetorch one of the Henry's founders came in to bitch at us for losing all his money on the show (we had a good show but but for some reason no one thought to sell the ads) -- there were rumors about his meth use when he came in... he came in around 4:45 PM and made the entire staff wait around till about 7:00 PM making us all sit in the lunch room to watch a segment that was airing on DirecTV when he had happened to walk in the front door and then to through a bitchfest. With about 30% of the people sitting on the floor at his feet he asked for a show of hands to let him know who worked the segment that was shown. He then proceeded to say how it was the worst piece of sh*t he had ever seen on television. One of the guys we worked with had set up a hidden DV camera recording his asswipe antics. I wish I had a copy of that tape. This guy deserves what he has coming. He was hated by all his staff at the end of that day and everyone pretty much knew it was the beginning of the end. Nichols basically tried to reinvent the show based on a musician promotion concept he had... but I think he still hadn't figured out on television you have to sell ads to pay for stuff.

[OneLove @ Jun 6th 2008 11:46AM]

why did the picture change? did engadget get a take down notice?

[Loring Wirbel @ Jun 6th 2008 12:56PM]

To reiterate the "who knew", Nicholas' problems in particular were making headlines and gossip columns since 2002. The LA Times Living section had some kind of "reform mea culpa" story on Nicholas about 2005 where he pledged he had cleaned up, would stay with his wife, work for charity, yada yada. The Broadcom tales have been legion for nearly a decade.

[WildMan @ Jun 11th 2008 6:42PM]

Damn, I wished I had known about this when I was there.

[NxP3 @ Jun 13th 2008 8:40PM]

hahaha...wow can't wait to see the movie on this one. hey you gotta have some fun...even at work.