Gene Levoff, who was a senior director of corporate law in charge of enforcing Apple’s Insider Trading Policy, was aware of Apple financial results before they were public, and the government alleges he traded based on those results.
He’s facing six counts of securities fraud and six counts of wire fraud.
“This scheme to defraud Company-1 [Apple Inc.] 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.”
Levoff was one of Apple’s top lawyers. He started at Apple in 2008 and was a senior director of corporate law from 2013 until 2018, according to the indictment. The trades mentioned in the indictment occurred between 2011 and 2016.
One of his responsibilities at Apple was making sure that Apple employees didn’t do any insider trading.
MacDailyNews Note: This is now a criminal case, and each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison in addition to fines. If found guilty, prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law – and not in some Club Fed white-collar, minimum-security resort, either.
What a dumbass
Yep, what a maroon. All these insider cases are nonsensical, since the amounts these guys cheated, were easily made in salary and bonuses. Must have been a thrill to cheat, because the money wasn’t all that much.
Should have done it the old fashioned way…
Backdating stock options!
He was always such a nice boy.
Freaking crook. Such a greedy mofo needs to spend a few years in jail and contemplate his wrongdoings. He can keep Big Bubba from being lonely at night.
The sad thing is, given human nature, I suspect that insider trading occurs on a frequent basis. Way too many people have access to insider information and only the careless, unlucky, or just plain stupid offenders are caught and prosecuted
Given Levoff’s job and associated education, I would have to assume that he falls into the latter category. He should have known that the SEC cross-references trades from company officials with key company events like earnings reports. Suspicious events and patterns are easy to spot.
As KenC points out above, you have to wonder about Levoff’s cognitive ability. The risk/benefit trade off of his insider trading action appears to be very poor.
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
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