U.S. Technologies CEO C. Gregory Earls pleaded innocent to charges he cheated investors out of $15 million and diverted some of the money to a trust for his children.
Earls' attorney, Thomas Green, said it was not clear whether Earls could even afford a permanent lawyer because the SEC had frozen his assets. A judge gave Green and Earls a month to settle the matter.
Prosecutors say Earls took $15 million from investors who thought their money was being used for technology and an internet company. They say he redirected some of it to an educational trust for his children and to his ex-wife.
U.S. Technologies once focused on providing contract labor using prison inmates -- managing their production of electronics, furniture and other goods, but has since expanded. Earls and Green declined comment outside court.
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Software company restructuring: Computer Associates, one of the world's largest software companies, said it would eliminate 450 jobs worldwide as part of a restructuring.
The cuts will occur immediately in North America and over the next several months elsewhere, the company said.
Computer Associates employed about 15,900 employees before the latest cuts. It sells about 800 different software products, including network management and storage products.
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Gore joins Apple: Former Vice President Al Gore, who was elected last month to Apple Computer's board of directors, has been granted the quintessential high-tech perk: stock options.
Gore was elected to the board March 19. It's the standard Apple (AAPL) compensation package for outside directors such as Gore, the company said.
Gore, who lost the controversial 2000 presidential campaign to George Bush, often focused on high-tech issue and popularized the term "information superhighway" while in office.
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Thinner electronic circuits: ASML Holding NV, a maker of semiconductor equipment, said it was shipping the first of a new kind of lithography machine which can produce thinner electronic circuits and smaller chips.
The machine can make circuits as thin as 65 nanometers compared to 80 nanometers with today's tools. This month it will be installed at the Interuniversities MicroElectronic Center, a research and development consortium backed by the world's largest chipmakers.
A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter and circuits will be almost as thin as one-thousandth the width of a human hair. The transistors on the chip, which switch on and off and enable calculations, are bigger than the circuits.
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Digital radio grows: Broadcaster XM Satellite radio said it added 135,000 subscribers to its digital radio service, slightly beating its own prediction.
XM, (XSMR) which transmits more than 100 channels of digital news and entertainment -- some commercial free -- said it now carries 483,075 subscribers.
XM also said it was on track to reach 1 million subscribers by the end of this year, reiterating its prior forecast.
- AP and Reuters contributed to this report.*
