Bilked investors will remember the name Stephen Parker Gardner, former CEO of software company Peregrine Systems Inc. He initially plead not guilty to charges in the accounting fraud scheme that bankrupted the company in 2004. Gardner negotiated a $150 million line of credit based on knowingly false data, lied to SEC investigators about it, and exercised $14 million worth of stock options despite knowing the stock price was inflated. He was responsible for booking almost $250 million in inflated revenue 1999-2001. Gardner recently appeared in court to change his plea to guilty and to indicate he may cooperate in criminal proceedings against other Peregrine Systems executives in exchange for a lighter sentence. Hewlett-Packard bought Peregrine Systems for $425 million in 2005, $26.08 per share, when Peregrin Systems emerged from bankruptcy.

The reason any of this is current news is that Stephen Parker Gardner is the brother-in-law of Democractic presidential candidate Bill Richardson, former Energy secretary and UN Ambassador, currently governor of New Mexico. Richardson was on Peregrine's board from February 2001 until June 2002. Richardson claims he knew nothing about any financial irregularities, and didn't attend that many meetings anyway. Look for his democratic rivals to use his associations with Peregrine to smear him