The former chairman and CEO of Monster Worldwide Inc. (NASD: MNST), Andrew McKelvey, settled a stock options backdating case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency announced today. Monster also announced that it reached a settlement with McKelvey calling for him to pay the company $8 million.

Under the SEC settlement, McKelvey will pay $275,989 and be barred form serving as an officer of a public company. He agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying the allegations.

The SEC's complaint alleged that McKelvey and others backdated stock options starting in 1997 and did not properly account for them in public filings. As a result, Monster overstated is aggregate pretax operating income by approximately $339.5 million between 1997 and 2005, according to the SEC. McKelvey did not receive backdated options himself.

In the settlement with Monster, McKelvey's shares will be converted to ordinary shares of common stock, reducing his voting power to 7.38% from 31.01%, according to Monster. That is in addition to the $8 million payment.

"Today's announcement marks another step forward in the company's efforts to resolve its outstanding litigation and to put behind it the allegations regarding the prior management's practices with respect to stock option grants, which have been an ongoing distraction to our customers," said Chairman and CEO Sal Iannuzzi.

McKelvey resigned in October 2006.

Separately, Monster announced on Tuesday that Steve Pogorzelski, executive VP of global sales and customer development, stepped down, effective January 18.