SEC investigating possible insider trading at Apple

APPARENTLY NOT SATISFIED with having avoided prosecution last year for back-dating share option grants, Jobs' Mob has recently become the subject of an SEC investigation into possible insider trading in Apple shares.

According to writer Dan Dorfman writing in his blog at the Huffington Post, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has started pursuing an investigation into highly profitable trading in Apple's securities both within the US and overseas.

Internal SEC documents have revealed that the watchdog is interested in four time periods after it got a little suspicious that some traders seemed to know exactly when to buy and sell Apple's securities. Some traders seemed to either have had a rather lucky streak for quite a while or knew someone inside Apple.

As usual, Apple is not saying anything, and neither is the SEC at this point, quite naturally. However the SEC seems to be concerned about potentially illegal use of inside information involving three particular Apple-related developments.

If insider trading happened at Apple it seems incredibly unlikely that it was at a low level. The cappuccino outfit is famously so secretive that even the loo paper is said to be both encrypted and password protected.

For anyone to benefit from insider trading in Apple shares they would have had to know exactly how sales were faring on key items in Apple's product lines such as Iphones, Ipods and possibly Mac computers.

They would also need to have had details about the health of Apple Messiah Steve Jobs this past year, as questions about his health and liver transplant have led to a great deal of volatility in Apple's share prices.

Last year Steve Jobs was questioned by the SEC over the back-dating of stock options. In the end he had to give back a fair wad of cash. Several other Apple employees were also involved in that investigation. µ