Settle down: 8 ex-execs settle in Enterasys, Riverstone cases.

Eight former, executives of two Cabletron Systems spinoffs have agreed to settle civil securities fraud charges, according to papers filed in federal court on both sides of the country.

Six Riverstone Networks executives have agreed to pay a total of more than $1.6 million in fines to settle charges that they inflated revenue when that company spun off from Cabletron in 2001, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Northern California.

Two Enterasys Networks executives--currently serving federal prison terms for securities fraud relating to the Enterasys spinoff in 2001--settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges that they were part of a broader conspiracy with eight others dating back to Cabletron Systems and continuing onward to Enterasys, according to papers filed last week in federal district court in Concord, N.H.

That Enterasys conspiracy allegedly induded former Cabletron chief executive Piyush Patel, who engineered the spinoff and later served on Riverstone's board of directors. Patel has not yet settled the Enterasys charges and was not charged in the Riverstone conspiracy.

None of defendants who settled admitted or denied the charges, though the settlement prevents them from disputing the factual allegations.

If the Riverstone settlement is approved by the court, former chief executive Romulus S. Pereira would pay $450,000, former chief financial officer Robert Stanton would pay $250,000, L. John Kern, vice president of sales, would pay $472,496, Andrew Feldman, vice president of marketing, would pay $396,096, William McFarland, vice president of finance, would pay $40,000 and Lori Cornmesser, director of sales operations, would pay $23,179.

Pereira, Stanton and Kern also would be barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company for five years.

If the Enterasys settlement is accepted by the court, former Enterasys chief financial officer Robert Gagalis and Bruce Kay, the former vice president of finance, would be permanently banned from acting as an officer or director of a public company regulated by the SEC, but would not have to pay a fine because they can no longer afford to--presumably because their estates were exhausted by legal costs associated with their criminal trials.