Computer Sciences Corp., the big data processing company based in El Segundo, did an interesting thing today. It notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that thousands of stock option grants had been improperly dated in one form or another covering a period between 1996 and 2006 - and that the company might need to record an additional $68 million in expenses as a result. In its internal investigation, CSC has determined that 9,234 stock option grants should be "modified, due to delays in authorization and insufficient documentation." The filing says there is evidence that options granted to senior executives in 1996, 1999 and 2002 "may each have had two measurement dates." As a result of all this misdating, CSC said it is changing its stock options policy so that all grants must be approved on or prior to the grant date. But there's also this:

The company's independent directors concluded that the evidence obtained by the Special Committee's investigation, as well as their own interviews of certain current and former employees, did not establish any intentional wrongdoing by current or former employees or directors, and the independent directors continue to have confidence in the integrity of management.

So essentially, CSC is saying that it did something wrong, that it resulted in shelling out a bunch more money, that it promises not to do it again, and that nobody did any of this intentially, based on the "evidence obtained." Call me silly, but why do I suspect there may be more to the story?