What you need to know
- Former Apple lawyer Gene Levoff has been indicted on charges of insider trading
- Levoff had previously been charged over the same insider trading by the SEC in a civil case in February.
- Levoff was previously one of Apple's top lawyers, and was in charge of Apple's insider trading policy.
One of Apple's former top lawyers has been indicted on criminal charges of insider trading. Gene Levoff was Apple's Senior Director of Corporate Law from 2013 until 2018, in February this year he weas charged by the SEC in a civil case relating to trades that allegedly took place between 2011 and 2016.
According to a report from CNBC Levoff will now face criminal charges in the matter, as was announced by the U.S Attorney in New Jersey on Thursday.
The report states that Levoff faces 6 counts of securities fraud and six counts of wire fraud:
"This scheme to defraud Company-1 and its shareholders allowed Levoff to realize profits of approximately $227,000 on certain trades and to avoid losses of approximately $377,000 on others," according to the press release.It continued: "When Levoff discovered that Company-1 had posted strong revenue and net profit for a given financial quarter, he purchased large quantities of stock, which he later sold for a profit once the market reacted to the news."
The gross irony in this story, as the indictment states, is that one of Levoff's responsibilites in his role at Apple was to ensure compliance with Apple's Insider Trading Policy. In fact, it is even alleged that Levoff traded stock during a trading blackout period, where employees are not permitted to buy or sell stock, after he had informed Apple employees of said blackout.
Levoff's lawyer Kevin Marino told CNBC "We look forward to vigorously defending Mr. Levoff with respect to these allegations." If found guilty, each count carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison, along with fines. Apple has not commented on the indictment, but CNBC notes that following the news of the SEC civil case against Mr Levoff in February, Apple stated that it had conducted a thorough investigation with the help of legal experts, which led to Mr Levoff's termination.
