Apple's former lawyer Gene Levoff pleads guilty to insider trading

Apple's former lawyer Gene Levoff pleads guilty to insider trading

His sentencing is scheduled for 10 November

Gene Levoff, the former top corporate lawyer at Apple Inc has pleaded guilty to insider trading charges. The prosecutors called it a five-year scheme to trade ahead of the iPhone maker's quarterly earnings announcements.

The 48-year-old San Carlos, California, lawyer allegedly exploited his roles as corporate secretary, head of corporate law and co-chair of a committee that reviewed drafts of Apple's results to generate $604,000 of illegal gains on more than $14 million of trades from 2011 to 2016.

The prosecutors said that Levoff ignored the quarterly 'blackout periods' that barred trading before Apple's results were released. Even though responsible for enforcing the company's broader insider trading policy, he disregarded it.

In a statement, the First Assistant US Attorney Vikas Khanna in New Jersey, stated, "Gene Levoff betrayed the trust of one of the world's largest tech companies for his own financial gain."

The authorities explained that since the servers were in New Jersey for the firms that handled Levoff's trades, the criminal case was filed in that state.

Each count carries a maximum 20-year prison term and a $5 million fine. Though it is speculated that Levoff's punishment would likely be much less.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, fired Levoff in September 2018, five months before he was criminally charged. The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges.