Apple's insider trading enforcement charge for insider trading

The Securities and Currency Commission has brought with them Gene Daniel Levoff, who was Apple's senior executive in September 2018. Levoff is accused of using his position to do illegal trading of Apple shares.

Levoff was part of the Apple Disclosure Committee ̵

1; one of those who could assess the company's quarterly financial reports prior to publication. The SEC claims that it used non-public information obtained as part of the committee to inform trades about Apple shares. For example, in July 2015, he learned that Apple would miss analysts' sales of iPhone devices. Between July 17 and July 21, when Apple published its quarterly results report, he sold almost all of his stock of Apple stock, a total of nearly $ 10 million. When the news became public, Apple's stock price dropped by more than 4 percent early, avoiding losses of around $ 345,000.

SEC claims that between 2011 and 2012, Levoff had reported earning $ 245,000 in profits and in 2015 and 2016, avoided loss totaling $ 382,000.

Apple interrupted Levoff last year after conducting an internal survey in response to government contacts. During his career at Apple, he was one of those responsible for ensuring that employees followed the insider trading policies of the company. In 2015, he himself implemented an update to the policy. SEC's filing says Levoff, on three occasions in 2010 and 2011, sent emails to employees to warn them that the company was going into a blackout period and that they were banned from trading Apple shares. Two of these emails were "immediately earlier" to their insider trading in 2011.

One of these emails included the following all-caps reminder:

Remember, is not allowed, either in an open trading window if YOU FOLLOW OR HAVE ACCESS TO MATERIAL INFORMATION NOT PUBLISHED PUBLIC

The SEC requires Levoff to pay an amount equal to the profits and losses avoided over the past five years, along with a three-fold penalty. The agency also requires him to be banned from being an official or director of a public company. At the same time, the US lawyer in Newark, New Jersey, has committed criminal charges, with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $ 5 million.