A Former Apple Lawyer Indicted for Insider Trading

A former Apple lawyer is being indicted for the very thing he was meant to stop from happening at the company.

Illegal insider trading gives people access to nonpublic company information an unfair advantage over everyone else, a bit like using secret cheat codes in a multiplayer game. Only instead of leaderboards and killstreaks, it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line.

CNBC Reports:

Gene Levoff was Apple’s senior director of corporate law for the company. Levoff knows very well Apple’s financial results before they were made public. As a result of that knowledge, the government alleges, Levoff traded based on that knowledge. But those who keeping score, that’s called insider trading.

This is comical because Levoff was in charge of enforcing Apple’s very own Insider Trading Policy. This is based on the indictment filed against Levoff. The report states that the former Apple lawyer is facing 12 counts in all:

• six counts of security fraud
• six counts of wire fraud

This scheme to defraud Company-1. 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 began work at Apple way back in 2008. Between the years 2013 and 2018 Levoff served as senior director of corporate law for the company. The indictment reveals that Levoff participated in insider trading between the years 2011 and 2016.

The indictment also reveals that during an Apple “blackout”, a point in time when Apple employees are not allowed to buy or sell a stock, Levoff was still busy trading stock. And Levoff was the one informing those employees of the blackout period(s).

Each count against Levoff carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, along with additional fees. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) originally filed a civil suit against Levoff back in February of this year. However, this new indictment is criminal.

Conclusion:

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