On Thursday, US prosecutors moved on to dismiss the drug charges that had been slapped against ex-Chief Executive of Broadcom Corp. Henry Nicholas III, while stressing that they would now look to appeal a judge's dismissal of charges against the Chief Executive and another top management member with regards to stock options backdating.

Last month, a federal judge in Santa Ana, California, had thrown out the Government's criminal stock options backdating cases that had been slapped against Mr. Nicholas, ex-Chief Financial Officer William Ruehle and co-founder Henry Samueli, citing the reason as "prosecutor misconduct" and questions about whether or not the crimes in question were committed at Broadcom.

As per the motion filed on Thursday, Acting U. S. Attorney George Cardona asserted, that while the Government "disagrees with the Court's findings and rulings in the (stock options) fraud case" against Mr. Nicholas, it would choose to dismiss the drug case.

No comments have yet been shared by Mr. Nicholas or his attorney on the development.

Further hearing on the issue has been scheduled for February 02.