The Justice Department has issued subpoenas to at least 35 companies and last week brought its first criminal charges, against two former executives of Brocade Communications.

Back in the bubble of 2000, you may recall, Brocade Communications was one heck of a stock.

Brocade Communications will not be alone.

Phone.com, which makes software for cellular phones, has 132, while Brocade Communications, which makes the switches used in computer networks, has 213.

Two former executives of Brocade Communications face criminal charges related to backdating.

One of the larger backdating scandal occurred at Brocade Communications, a data storage company.

In particular, they have been looking at one of the first cases, Brocade Communications.

Since then, the Nasdaq composite is down 17.4 percent, while the best-performing of last year's new stars, Brocade Communications, is down 18.9 percent.

Robert Snively of Brocade Communications was technical editor.

Kumar Malavalli - Founder of Brocade Communications (www.brocade.com).