Ex-CEO pleads guilty in backdating probe

The former chief executive of video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminal charges related to the backdating of stock options.

Ryan Brant, who in 1993 founded the company best known for “Grand Theft Auto,” a blockbuster urban-action game, pleaded guilty in New York state court to falsifying business records.

He also settled a separate civil action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He is the first former CEO to plead guilty to criminal charges in the recent option-backdating probes. Former CEOs of two other companies, Comverse Technology Inc. and Brocade Communications Systems Inc., face charges in separate option cases.

“I am deeply sorry for my role in the inappropriate manner Take-Two granted incentive stock options,” Brant said in a statement.

He agreed to pay $6.3 million to settle the civil charges and $1 million in penalties related to the criminal case.

He did not admit or deny wrongdoing in the civil case but agreed to a permanent bar on holding top offices at publicly held companies.

The SEC said Brant had agreed to settle charges that he “enriched himself and others” by granting undisclosed options to himself and other employees. It did not provide details about the other individuals.

The SEC and the Manhattan district attorney’s office said their investigations were continuing.

Brant is expected to be given probation when he is sentenced Aug. 1., his lawyer and prosecutors said.

Brant resigned his nonexecutive post at New York-based Take-Two in October. He was CEO until February 2001 and chairman until March 2004.

The SEC and New York prosecutors accused Brant of awarding himself backdated options from 1997 to 2003 to buy about 2.1 million shares of Take-Two stock, all of which he exercised before resigning.