"We have here a woman who has in so many respects led a more than admirable life. The many, many letters I received attest to this, but the unquestioned undisputed facts attest to it," Rakoff said.
Still, she had pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud. Rakoff couldn't let her off the hook. Options backdating cases had become a top federal priority, and she had changed dates on thousands of options granted to multiple SafeNet employees.
"The nature of the crime is too serious, lasted too long, was too intentional to not require some punishment, and there [are] important general deterrence issues here as well," he began.
Her crime carried a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $5 million fine. A probation officer advocated 4 1/2 years.
Rakoff opted for a sentence he characterized as "extraordinarily low:" six months in federal prison and a $1 million fine.
It was now Argo's turn to speak. She rose from her chair.
Her composure would break only once.
A young company
In 1999, Anthony A. Caputo was 57 years old and had been at SafeNet - then known as "Information Resource Engineering" - for 13 years. The company was founded by a couple of security engineers in a Timonium basement. Caputo was its first investor and soon its chief executive.
He molded the business into his own and took it public in 1992, weathering the typical struggles of a young technology company, including an attempted shareholder coup in 1998.
The company's stock reached a high of $31.62 in 1999. It had grown to 135 employees - 100 more than five years earlier. Its focus had expanded beyond encryption to message authentication and communication security.
But Caputo needed help. He had tech people to design the products and marketing people to sell them. But he didn't have an executive on staff who could oversee the daily demands of a quickly expanding business.
Argo was working at Optelecom Inc., a publicly traded fiber optics company in Germantown, and had more than 15 years of business experience. She was the chief financial officer, but the title didn't carry the weight it does at many companies. Her salary didn't even rank in the top three.
At SafeNet, she would be number two.
"She is a tremendous asset to our team," Caputo said in a July 1999 news release announcing that Argo had been hired as CFO and would report directly to him.
