Federal prosecutors confirmed they have opened an investigation into stock options irregularities at Apple Inc.
The US Attorney's Office in San Francisco acknowledged for the first time on Friday that it was investigating Apple's handling of stock options awards given to executives and other employees even though the company has cleared CEO Steve Jobs and all current management of any wrongdoing in the accounting shenanigans that resulted in thousands of mishandled grants. A spokesman declined to release further details of the probe.
The announcement came the same day it was revealed that federal investigators were examining one award in particular to Jobs as part of the wider probe and were looking to question a former Apple lawyer who was in charge of stock-options administration.
Federal authorities were looking into the circumstances surrounding an award granted to Jobs for options on 7.5 million shares, an award that carried a false October 2001 date when it was actually approved in December of that year, a person close to the investigation said. The person requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the development on Friday, citing anonymous sources.
The Journal also reported that investigators with the US Attorney's Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission were trying to question a former Apple lawyer, Wendy Howell, who was in charge of stock-options administration and was quietly dismissed last month.
Howell was believed to have falsified documents related to Jobs' grant, the Journal reported, citing the anonymous sources. Her lawyer, Thomas Carlucci, did not return a phone calls on Friday.
Apple has said that the internal probe that exonerated Jobs and other current management also revealed "serious concerns" about the actions of two former Apple employees in connection with improperly accounted stock options grants. Those people are reportedly Fred Anderson, the former chief financial officer and Nancy Heinen, former general counsel.
Defense lawyers for Anderson and Heinen have both said their clients did not knowingly participate in any manipulation of the awards.
The latest revelations about the federal probe ratcheted up the pressure on Jobs and Apple at one of the most prosperous times for the company and raised further questions about Jobs' future.
Apple's stock was trading at all-time highs last week after Jobs unveiled one of company's most important and widely hyped product in years -- the iPhone.
Jobs' introduction of the multimedia gadget led to a federal trademark-infringement lawsuit from Cisco Systems Inc, which has owned the trademark on the name "iPhone" since 2000 and began shipping its own line of iPhone-branded Internet-enabled phones in spring last year.
Though the lawsuit could wind up costing Apple millions of dollars and possibly the loss of the iPhone name, investors and analysts have cheered Apple's announcement of the sleek iPod-cellular phone combination.
Investors sent the company's stock to a high of US$97.80 on Thursday, creating more than US$10 billion in additional shareholder wealth at the stock's peak, compared to its price before the announcement.
Charles Golvin, principal analyst with Forrester Research Inc, said investors and consumers want Jobs to stay with the company. It would likely take a dramatic turn such as criminal charges against Jobs or evidence of deep involvement in any manipulation to cause his ouster, Golvin said.
"The market has spoken -- the market wants Steve Jobs to be the head of Apple," Golvin said. "They are more concerned about the loss of him as the leader of the company than they are about any options manipulation or anything like that."
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
RSS