The US Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges against a semi-conductor company and its CFO who were alleged to have been involved in a fraudulent back-dating of stock options.

The SEC charged Integrated Silicon Solution and former finance executive Gary Fischer with concealing millions of dollars in stock option compensation expenses.

As part of the alleged scheme used by the company, employees were provided with lucrative opportunities for potentially attaining cash while about 60 grants were back-dated so as to avoid the reports to investors.

The CFO is to pay a total of $539,830 to the SEC for the civil penalty, CFO.com reported.

The company did not admit or deny the allegations but agreed to a permanent injunction relating to committing securities fraud and violating internal controls rules.
The SEC stressed that its acceptance of the settlement offer was due to the company's cooperation during the investigation.

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SEC charges Integrated Silicon with options fraud