NHL regrets having suspended Ducks owner Henry Samueli
Ducks owner Henry Samueli, spared a criminal record when a judge this week set aside his guilty plea in a stock backdating probe, got a near-apology Friday from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who had suspended Samueli from June 2008 until last month.
“In retrospect, it is regrettable and unfortunate that the circumstances at that time caused the Samuelis and the Anaheim Ducks to endure any suspension,” Bettman said in a statement. “We were pleased to welcome the Samuelis back to the NHL when the suspension was lifted this past Nov. 12.”
Samueli, an Orange County resident, had pleaded guilty to lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission about the backdating of options at Broadcom Corp., the chipmaking company he co-founded with Henry T. Nicholas III. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney dismissed the plea and said Samueli had not made a false material statement.
“I very much appreciate Commissioner Bettman’s comments and I fully understand and respect his difficult decision last summer,” Samueli said in a statement. “The past 18 months have been very stressful for me and my family and now that the truth has finally come out, I am extraordinarily pleased to be able to finally put this matter behind me.”
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