SAN FRANCISCO (Bloomberg) — HCC Insurance Holdings Inc., a seller of property and casualty insurance, said its chief executive and general counsel resigned after accountants found misdated options that may require restatements of as much as $37 million.Stephen L. Way quit as chief executive officer effective today, to be replaced by Frank Bramanti. Way will remain non- executive chairman, the Houston-based company said last week in a statement. Way will forfeit his 2006 bonus and any unvested options, HCC said. General counsel Chris L. Martin also quit.

Both Way and Martin agreed to pay the company back for any extra gains they received from misdated options. Vested options they haven't exercised will have their strike prices changed based on new measurement dates, HCC said.

Spokesman Jay Simmons declined to elaborate on the reason for the resignations. Way and Martin didn't respond to requests for interviews.

Way and Martin join more than 50 executives and directors who have left their jobs as companies investigate whether they inflated the value of options awarded to senior executives by backdating or timing the grants to coincide with days when the stock price was low.

HCC's forensic accountants, LECG, found the need for write-offs associated with grants to "a significant number of employees" from 1995 through 2006. The errors will probably require additional taxes as well, it said. HCC is evaluating the accountant's report to see if a restatement is needed.

At least 185 companies have disclosed internal or federal investigations into how they dated stock options and 76 have announced they must restate previously reported financial results. So far, the restatements, revisions and charges exceed $4.9 billion.