Apple ex-lawyer accused of insider trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has brought suit against Gene Daniel Levoff, who was Apple's senior director of corporate law until September 2018. Levoff is accused of using his position to make illegal trades of Apple shares.

Levoff is accused of using confidential information to trade the firm's securities for personal gain.

The SEC maintains that he used nonpublic information obtained as part of the committee to inform trades he made of Apple shares. For example, in July 2015 he learned that Apple was going to miss analyst estimates for iPhone unit sales.

Levoff, who was responsible for ensuring compliance with Apple's insider trading policies, is accused of breaching those policies on several occasions.

Apple fired him last year after being contacted by authorities and conducting an internal investigation.

The US (SEC) said Levoff engaged in insider trading various times between 2011 and 2016.

"Levoff's alleged exploitation of his access to Apple's financial information was particularly egregious given his responsibility for implementing the company's insider trading compliance policy," Antonia Chion, associate director of the SEC's division of enforcement, said in a statement.

"The SEC is committed to pursuing insiders who breach their duties to investors."

In 2011 and 2012, Apple's former head of corporate law made $245,000 (£193,801) in profits by engaging in insider trading, the SEC said.

Levoff also traded Apple securities ahead of three quarterly earnings announcements in 2015 and 2016, making approximately $382,000 in combined profits and losses avoided.

The SEC is demanding Levoff pay a sum equal to the profits made and losses avoided over the last five years, along with a penalty of three times that amount.

The agency is also demanding that he be banned from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Simultaneously, the US Attorney in Newark, New Jersey, has filed criminal charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine.