LOS ANGELES -- Securities regulators on Wednesday charged Broadcom Corp. co-founders Henry T. Nicholas III and Henry Samueli with falsifying the company's reported income, leading to what is believed to be the largest accounting restatement yet because of backdating stock options.

LOS ANGELES -- Securities regulators on Wednesday charged Broadcom Corp. co-founders Henry T. Nicholas III and Henry Samueli with falsifying the company's reported income, leading to what is believed to be the largest accounting restatement to date because of backdating stock options.

Its stock price falls 17% after news that research took a huge bite out of the bottom line. Broadcom Corp. executives have a vision of the Irvine chip maker eventually supplying all the brains and power in cellphones, but Wall Street wasn't waiting Wednesday for that to happen.