Court upholds SEC case against Pattison A federal appeals court has upheld $124,000 in damages and penalties against the former controller of a San Francisco software company for falsifying records to conceal the backdating of employee stock options. In a 3-0 ruling Wednesday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said there was evidence that Pattison "regularly cherry-picked the lowest share price of each quarter" to value stock options, then concealed his practice in internal company memos and documents to independent auditors. The court also rejected a defense claim that Pattison was denied a fair trial because the SEC did not give advance notice of accountants and lawyers who testified as experts.