Apple’s Former Top Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading

The man who used to be in charge of making sure Apple's employees stayed on the straight and narrow is going to jail for telling them not to do stock trades.

Gene Levoff, Apple's head of corporate law for most of the 2010s, admitted to using his position to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in ill-gotten gains. He pleaded guilty to six counts of securities fraud for using his knowledge of the tech giant's quarterly earnings to make a buck.

Each count usually carries a 20-year sentence and $5 million fine, but the guilty plea will likely reduce that time when he is sentenced in November.

Levoff betrayed the trust of one of the world's largest tech companies in order to "line his own pockets."

Levoff joined Apple in 2008 and was named senior director of corporate law in the original indictment. He oversaw Apple's compliance with securities law under the SEC. According to prosecutors, he was co-chair of a committee that reviewed Apple's quarterly earnings. He held the title of corporate secretary until he was fired in September.

Levoff was supposed to be subject to Apple's "blackout periods," which were supposed to stop people from trading until after the company disclosed its quarterly financial results. The former leader ignored the restrictions and executed trades multiple times.

Levoff's shady dealings were included in the SEC complaint. Levoff sold $10 million of Apple stock from his personal accounts after learning that the company would miss third quarter estimates. According to the complaint, Apple told CNBC that authorities had contacted the company's higher ups in the summer of 2018, and after Apple conducted its own internal investigation.

His alleged crimes were not lost on the federal investigators. Levoff's email to employees was read in all-caps by the SEC.

If you have access to material information that has not been disclosed publicly, you can't trade in an open trading window.

The acting agent in charge of the FBI's Newark office said that insider trading is harmful for Americans who have retirement savings invested in these companies.