Former Apple attorney charged with insider trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed insider trading charges against a former senior attorney at Apple, Inc., whose duties included executing the company’s insider trading compliance efforts.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that Gene Daniel Levoff, an attorney who previously served as Apple’s global head of corporate law and corporate secretary, received confidential information about Apple’s quarterly earnings announcements in his role on a committee of senior executives who reviewed the company’s draft earnings materials prior to their public dissemination. Using this confidential information, Levoff traded Apple securities ahead of three quarterly earnings announcements in 2015 and 2016 and made approximately $382,000 in combined profits and losses avoided.

The complaint seeks a judgment enjoining Levoff from engaging in future violations of the insider trading rules; ordering disgorgement of an amount equal to the profits gained and losses avoided, with prejudgment interest; ordering payment of a civil money penalty, and banning Levoff from serving as an officer or director of a public company.