Apple’s former senior attorney, who enforced its insider trading policy, pleaded guilty on Thursday to committing insider trading schemes.
In 2019, the Justice Department charged Gene Levoff, who was Apple’s senior director of corporate law until he was fired in late 2018, of using nonpublic information about Apple’s financial results that helped him avoid losses and generate profits while engaging in illegal transactions. The company’s earnings report.
Between 2011 and 2016, Mr. Levoff averted a loss of $377,000 before Apple announced bad news about its iPhone business and made more than $220,000 in profit before announcing good news. According to documents filed with the United States District Court in Newark. The transaction violated the quarterly “blackout period” prohibiting transactions by individuals with access to sensitive, non-public information.
In the 2015 case, Mr. Levoff sold $10 million of Apple stock before reporting that it would fall short of analyst estimates, avoiding a loss when the stock fell 4% in disappointing quarterly results.
Many times Mr. According to initial complaints, Levoff made the deal after sending an email to an Apple employee stating that the deal was being restricted. According to Apple’s insider trading policy, individuals with material, non-public information about a company cannot transact until 60 hours after the information is released.
“The defendant strictly abused a financial gain he would not have realized had he not taken advantage of his position within the company,” said Terrence Reilly, acting FBI Newark office manager who led the investigation. “It’s called ‘Game System’.”
Seed. Levov’s lawyer declined to comment. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2020, Mr. Levov’s legal team filed an application to dismiss the case, arguing that the complaint was unconstitutional because there is no law prohibiting insider trading. But Judge William Martini rejected the proposal, saying the allegations were “wrong” and that Congress had passed laws to ensure “a fair and honest market.”
Before he was fired, Mr. Levoff reported to Apple’s General Counsel. He was a member of the company’s Disclosure Committee, which helped prepare Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri before releasing quarterly information to investors.
The number of securities fraud cases of Mr. A. Levov’s defense carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine. Sentencing is scheduled for November. 10.
A separate lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission is still pending. The institution is Mr. Levoff repays profits from the transaction.
