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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (63558)	4/24/2007 1:53:36 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

The Market says this is muchado about nothing since the stock price has rebounded in the last several minutes from a low of 89.10 today. “With respect to the October 2001 grant to Mr. Jobs that is also the subject of the complaint, Fred had virtually no involvement as he was not a member of the Board and did not have a formal role in compensation matters pertaining to the CEO. Fred had absolutely no knowledge of any alteration of Board documents and this is reflected by the fact that he is not even mentioned in those charges." Message 23488514

To: slacker711 who wrote (63558)	4/24/2007 3:38:26 PM
From: inaflash	Respond to of 213177

There was lots of smoke, a little fire, but no arson. any discrepancy in options pricing should be a credit to APPLE. Any of the 3.5M settlement going back to Apple? Not likely, but they're the "victim" here, no? If they even consider going after Jobs for "illegal backdating", the rest of the 100+ CFO's being investigated are 100% liable, and they'll have to go after them. Looks like they have, though not criminally. They didn't have any criminal wrongdoing, just accounting and judgement error. Anderson will be allowed to continue to serve, which I believe is all good. He has served Apple well through some difficult times, and deserves credit despite this hoopla. Looks like he'll make a comeback somewhere if he chooses. Despite the 3.5M he'll lose, I'm sure he's made much more than that at Apple. Message 22882818 Like I've said before, this is an accounting issue and Steve Jobs and the other CEOs should line up behind every other CFO and directors of accounting departments of the companies that have been investigated. S-O aside, looks like in this case, the CEO was able to take shied behind the accountants on an accounting issue. I'm surprise the SEC took it this far with what was available, but the threat of making someone a scapegoat probably helped implicate some bigger fish, even if their only contribution was a lapse in oversight. In this case, accountants shouldn't claim CEOs can overide accounting decisions any more than corporate lawyers can allow illegal transactions. (SEC Charges Two Enron Lawyers With Fraud blogs.wsj.com Message 23192789 Would you send your child to Whittier College? Message 22883824 SEC Charges 2 Former Apple Officers Tuesday April 24, 3:15 pm ET By May Wong, Associated Press Writer SEC Files Charges Against 2 Former Apple Officers Over Options SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges Tuesday against two former Apple Inc. officers over their alleged roles in backdating stock options. One of them immediately settled the case and cast some blame on Apple's CEO Steve Jobs. Former Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson, 62, has agreed to pay about $3.5 million in fines and penalties to settle the case, the SEC said. The case against former general counsel Nancy Heinen, 50, will proceed. Her attorneys have vowed to fight the charges. The commission accused Heinen of participating in fraudulent backdating and altering company records to conceal the fraud. The charges were in connection with two large options grants that caused the company to underreport its expenses by nearly $40 million, the SEC said. The grants in question were a February 2001 grant of 4.8 million options to Apple's executive team and a December 2001 grant of 7.5 million options to Jobs. Anderson's attorney, Jerome Roth, issued a statement Tuesday saying the former CFO had warned Jobs of the implications of backdating the executive team's grant. Roth said Anderson was reassured by Jobs that the board of directors had granted the necessary approvals, and thus proceeded with the conclusion that the grant was being properly handled. The SEC concluded the grant was fraudulently accounted for and that Anderson should have noticed Heinen's efforts to backdate the executive team's grant. He failed to take steps to ensure that Apple's financial statements were correct, the SEC said. Jobs' attorney, Mark Pomerantz, was not immediately available for comment. The two former officers each personally received several million dollars in unreported compensation as a result of the backdating, according to the SEC, which is seeking penalties and fines against Heinen, as well as a court order barring her from serving as an officer or director of a public company. The SEC said it will not pursue any further action against Apple itself, which cooperated fully with the probe. Apple is arguably the highest-profile company among dozens facing stock options scrutiny by the SEC and federal prosecutors. Anderson and Heinen both left Apple last year as the backdating scandal was unraveling. biz.yahoo.com