Former Apple Securities Lawyer Pleads Guilty Of Insider Trading

The DoJ announced today that the former corporate secretary and director of corporate law at Apple confessed to being part of an insider trading scheme that traversed five years.

Gene Levoff of San Carlos, California, pleaded guilty via videoconference before William J. Martini, U.S. District Judge to ‘six counts of an accusation charging him with multiple securities fraud. The first complaint was made back in February 2019.

Vikas Khanna said, “Gene Levoff betrayed the trust of one of the world’s largest tech companies for his financial gain,” He further added, “Despite being responsible for enforcing Apple’s ban on insider trading, Levoff used his position of trust to commit insider trading to line his own pockets”.

In his statement, FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge in Newark, Terence Reilly, said, “This defendant exploited his position within a company strictly for financial gain that he would not have otherwise realized”.

Background

As per the documents filed in the case and the statements recorded inside the court Levoff was the leading corporate attorney at Apple as he served as the company’s assistant secretary and corporate secretary.

He misappropriated material, including the nonpublic information about the company’s financial outcomes, and then performed trades containing Apple’s stock.

The scheme to defraud Apple and the company’s shareholders allowed Levoff to retain huge profits of up to $227,000 on various trades and also caused him to avoid losses of nearly $377,000.

Levoff was the co-chairman of Apple’s disclosure committee. Thus he held a power of attorney for reviewing and discussing the company’s earnings materials and SEC filings before any public disclosure.

He was also subject to the company’s ordered “blackout periods,” which prevented entities with access to material nonpublic information from trading until a certain time frame after the company released its financial results publically.

Levoff ignored all the restrictions and kept violating the border insider trading policy of the company. The insider trading offenses carry a penalty of 20 years imprisonment (maximum) with a $5 million fine. Levoff’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov 10, 2022.