Gene Levoff who happens to be the former Apple lawyer has been indicted on insider trading charges. The USA attorney from New Jersey cleared it through a statement made in a press release that Gene has been charged for using his inside information from Apple for trading Apple stock.
Gene even had access to the financial results before publication and used the same information to trade Apple stock. According to the sources, Levoff is currently facing six counts of securities fraud along with six counts of wire fraud.
In February, SEC had released the lawsuit against Gene for his involvement in the insider trading fraud in a civil case. Last Thursday, the further accusations cleared that each count that Gene has been charged for carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Plus, it also carries fines.
The press release stated, “This scheme to defraud Company-1 and its shareholders allowed Levoff to realize profits of approximately $227,000 on certain trades and to avoid losses of approximately $377,000 on others.”
The Statement also made it lucid that Levoff bought large quantities of stock after discovering that Company-1 had posted strong revenue and net profit for a given financial quarter. And, he sold those stocks for huge profit when the market reacted to the news.
The indictment also alleged that the trading was done by Levoff in the time of the “blackout” period. During the blackout period, employees aren’t allowed to buy or sell stocks. It has also been clarified that the Gene had informed employees of Apple about the blackout period while he was trading the Apple stocks.
The last statement Apple made was in February when it reported, “After being contacted by authorities last summer we conducted a thorough investigation with the help of outside legal experts, which resulted in termination.”
This time, Apple has declined to say anything related to the case.
However, Kevin Marino, lawyer of Levoff mentioned in his comment, “We look forward to vigorously defending Mr. Levoff with respect to these allegations.”