Apple's top manager was accused of insider trading. He had to fight her

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The Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Department of Justice have filed insider trading charges against a former senior Apple official. Daniel Levoff worked as a leading lawyer for the company and had access to reports before publication.
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Despite the fact that Levoff was responsible for combating insider trading, he used the information available to him for operations with Apple shares. For example, before publishing a report on a decrease in iPhone sales, Leoffoff sold shares for $ 10 million.

Disclosure Committee and Blackout period

Levoff was one of the most senior lawyers of the company and reported directly to the board of directors. He led a team of more than 30 lawyers. The manager worked for the company for more than ten years, and since 2008, together with Apple’s top management, he has been a member of the so-called “disclosure committee” - its members have access to reports and press releases of the company before they are published.

In American public companies, there is a rule according to which employees (insiders) are forbidden to perform operations with shares in a certain period before and after the publication of reports - it is called the blackout period. One of Levoff’s tasks was to monitor compliance with this rule. However, the lawyer himself during the blackout period made operations with Apple shares. According to the US Department of Justice, this allowed him to earn $ 227,000 from 2011 to 2016 and avoid losses of $ 377,000.

The Securities Commission and the Ministry of Justice documents contain descriptions of several insider trading cases by Levoff.

For example, in 2015, he got access to a report with figures on iPhone sales. The results were lower than those expected by analysts. Upon learning of this, the top manager sold Apple shares for $ 10 million. After the report was published, the stock price fell by 4% and the company's capitalization fell by $ 32 billion. Only this case allowed Levoff to avoid losses of $ 345,000.

What awaits the insider

After Apple found out in the fall of 2018 about the accusations against the employee, he was fired. In addition, Levoff faces imprisonment for up to 20 years and a fine of up to $ 5 million. The Securities Commission requires that he be fined and the former top manager banned from working as an official in public companies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission regularly charges insider trading for employees of public companies. According to the Financial Times, last year there were 56 such cases, which is about 10% of all charges against individuals.

In this case, the case of Levoff stands out among others - it is not every day that insider trading charges top managers who must deal with it.

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