Broadcom tech billionaire Henry Nicholas arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of drug trafficking

[TexasTowelie]

A disheveled Henry T. Nicholas III, an Orange County tech billionaire, crime victims advocate and noted philanthropist, was arrested this week in Las Vegas on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Nicholas, co-founder of the chipmaker Broadcom, was arrested Tuesday, Aug.7 at the Encore hotel on the Las Vegas Strip on suspicion of trafficking heroin, cocaine, meth and ecstasy, Las Vegas police said.

Police responded to the casino-resort following a report from security, which found contraband in a room, police officer Larry Hadfield said.

Nicholas, 58, was arrested along with a woman, Ashley Fargo. They later were released on their own recognizance.

Read more: https://www.pe.com/2018/08/09/broadcom-tech-billionaire-henry-nicholas-facing-drug-counts-after-arrest-in-vegas/


Henry T. Nicholas III was arrested Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018 at a Las Vegas Strip casino-resort on suspicion of trafficking heroin, cocaine, meth and ecstasy. (Photo courtesy Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP)

[NCTraveler]

1. Seems to have a history of strange behavior...

With a number of allegations of drug use.

[joshcryer]

5. He's been in and out of rehab for his drug and alcohol abuse.

Looks like he was also busted in 2008 for drugs but he was able to get the charges thrown out.

Maybe this will save his life, apparently he's done a lot of philanthropic stuff, all of which I have seen is good.

[dalton99a]

2. 2008 indictment:

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/technology/06broadcom.html
Former Chief of Broadcom Is Indicted
By LAURA M. HOLSON | JUNE 6, 2008

In one incident described in the indictment, Mr. Nicholas and his guests are said to have inhaled so much marijuana on a flight to Las Vegas from Orange County, Calif., that clouds of smoke and fumes drifted into the cockpit of the private plane and the pilot was required to put on an oxygen mask.

Mr. Nicholas is also accused of hiring prostitutes not only for himself but also for customers and associates of Broadcom, and to have supplied them with drugs. And, according to the indictment, Mr. Nicholas “used threats of violence and death and payments of money to attempt to conceal his unlawful conduct.”

In one 2002 incident cited in the indictment, Mr. Nicholas is described as entering into a $1 million settlement agreement “with a Broadcom employee who had knowledge” of his boss’s drug activities.

Mr. Nicholas used several residences in Orange County and Las Vegas, as well as a commercial office space called the “warehouse,” to distribute and use drugs, according to the unsealed indictments. Various code words, including “supplies,” “party favors” and “refreshments,” were used to describe the various drugs, the indictment said. But ecstasy is described as a particular favorite. According to the indictment, Mr. Nicholas gave some to an executive without his knowledge in July 1999 at the Woodstock concert in Rome, N.Y.

[marble falls]

4. Gee. What a nice guy.

[marble falls]

3. Whatever happens in Vegas, gets sentenced in Vegas.

[joshcryer]

6. Interestingly, if this was his first offense...

...calling the police / ambulance on the girlfriend grants you immunity in a drug case. It's meant to protect people from being afraid to call the police / ambulance for a drug overdose.

Many states have an immunity law for this now a days, which is sad, because it says that our opoid epidemic is so bad we need a law protecting people behaving illegally from letting people die for fear of jail: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-453C.html

The law doesn't explicitly state that it doesn't apply to second offenses but because it gives the courts discretion they will probably prosecute here (though he has enough money to probably get off on the case anyway, ironically because his girlfriend overdosed).

[marble falls]

7. Its a good law, but he only gets one do over.

[joshcryer]

8. Eh, billionaires get more than one do over.

I can't say that I think him going to jail would get him off the drug abuse. Our mental health system is non-existent.

[Anon-C]

9. ...

In one incident described in the indictment, Mr. Nicholas and his guests are said to have inhaled so much marijuana on a flight to Las Vegas from Orange County, Calif., that clouds of smoke and fumes drifted into the cockpit of the private plane and the pilot was required to put on an oxygen mask.