“Soon after the purported internal Apple e-mail was published on the consumer electronics Web site Engadget.com, Apple’s stock price fell from $108.83 to a low of $103.42. The stock recovered by the end of the day, and moved higher on May 17, but at one point nearly $4 billion of Apple’s market capitalization had evaporated,” Turner reports.
“Engadget quickly posted an update to its story, saying the e-mail was a hoax, but still stating that it was ‘an actual internal Apple e-mail that went out to thousands of Apple employees earlier today,'” Turner reports. “However, Natalie Kerris, spokesperson for Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., contradicted this, telling eWEEK on May 17 that the e-mail ‘did not come from Apple.'”
“Kerris declined to discuss any potential investigation into the provenance of the e-mail,” Turner reports. “A spokesperson for the SEC, based in Washington, said he ‘could not confirm or deny’ whether any SEC action would be taken. Intentional manipulation of a company’s stock price can be a serious crime, but, he said, the SEC decides what to pursue based on a ‘case-by-case analysis.'”
Turner reports, “How easily investigators can find the source of the fake Apple memo may depend on whether the memo was sent by a market speculator in the United States or by a sophisticated criminal ring operating in some region far from the reach of federal prosecutors.”
Full article here.