Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. has placed three top executives on leave and said it won’t file its second-quarter financial report on time due to an internal probe into its stock options accounting.

Camarillo-based Vitesse, which cancelled its April 24 conference call with analysts, said it would probe the timing and accounting of certain stock option grants, and warned it might need to restate past financial results.

The company said it placed Chief Executive Louis R. Tomasetta, Chief Financial Officer Yatin Mody and Executive Vice President Eugene F. Hovanec on leave because of their involvement with issues related to the integrity of documents relating to Vitesse’s stock option grant process.

Chris Gardner, vice president and general manager for the network products division, has been installed as acting president and chief executive.

Vitesse, which makes integrated circuits for communications and storage networks, was mentioned in a March 18 Wall Street Journal article concerning how some executives appeared to benefit from options issued shortly before a large price run-up in the stock.

If the options actually had been backdated, that would enable an options holder to exercise the option, or buy at a low price, and then sell at the higher market price later.

In the Journal article, a member of the Vitesse board’s compensation committee said a review of grants to Tomasetta found “nothing extraordinary” about their timing.