The SEC charged a former senior attorney at Apple with insider trading.

In a Complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the SEC alleged that Gene Daniel Levoff breached his duty of confidentiality to Apple and its shareholders, and exploited his position as a senior attorney and a member of Apple's Disclosure Committee to illegally trade Apple securities prior to quarterly earnings announcements. According to the Complaint, Mr. Levoff traded on the basis of insider information on at least three occasions between 2015 and 2016 and made approximately $382,000 in combined profits and avoided losses.

The SEC requested that the Court enter a judgment ordering Mr. Levoff to, among other things, (i) disgorge an amount equal to the profits made or losses avoided due to the alleged conduct, (ii) pay prejudgment interest and (iii) pay a civil monetary penalty "equal to three times his disgorgement amount."

In a parallel action, the DOJ announced criminal charges against Mr. Levoff.

Commentary / Kyle DeYoung

Based on the SEC and criminal complaints, this seems like a pretty brazen case of insider trading. However, Mr. Levoff has not agreed to settle the charges and it will be interesting to see if there is another side to this story as the case moves forward.

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