SEC Sues Past Apple GC; Was She Singled Out?
As previously predicted, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued former Apple Inc. general counsel Nancy Heinen today, claiming that she participated in a scheme to backdate stock options grants for CEO Steve Jobs and herself, among others.
Heinen’s lawyer, however, says she did nothing wrong, and criticizes the securities regulator for singling Heinen out for prosecution from other executives in similar situations at some 170 companies, reports Reuters.
Says Marc Fagel, an SEC official in San Francisco, “The inquiry has to be: does the person who is getting something understand the legalities of it.”
Apple’s chief financial officer was also charged, but immediately settled with the SEC. An internal audit at Apple found that Jobs did nothing wrong.
For more details, see this PC World article in the Washington Post (Ex-Apple CFO Blames Backdating on Jobs) and this Wall Street Journal story (sub. req.).
