stock-option backdating

Apple CEO Steve Jobs maintained that he was unaware of the accounting implications of stock-option backdating during his deposition last year with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a transcript of the interview.

Forbes managed to obtain the document after a Freedom of Information Act ruling in its favor, and has published a story examining the transcript. Apple and Jobs were the subject of an investigation after the company determined that two stock-option awards given to Jobs and other Apple executives were improperly backdated, and that minutes of a meeting were falsified by Nancy Heinen, Apple's general counsel … Read more

Take-Two Interactive Software reached a $3 million settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, relating to charges that the game publisher engaged in falsifying financial records as part of a stock option-backdating scheme, the SEC announced Wednesday.

A settlement agreement had largely been expected, after Take-Two announced two years ago that it had received a notice from the SEC's staff that it would recommend that charges be filed against the company. Take-Two, at the time, said the company expected to pursue a settlement agreement, rather than fight regulators in court.

Take-Two agreed to the settlement without … Read more

The Securities and Exchange Commission has levied fines against Research In Motion executives for their actions in a stock-option backdating scheme, two weeks after Canadian regulators took similar action.

The fines imposed by the SEC on RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazardis won't be quite as steep as the ones ordered by the Ontario Securities Commission. Balsille will have to pay the SEC a total of $684,250 in fines and penalties, while Lazardis will have to cough up $478,300. Earlier this month, the OSC ordered the co-CEOs and RIM executives Dennis Kavelman and Angelo Loberto to … Read more

Research in Motion's co-CEOs might have dodged what could have been one of Canada's largest penalties ever imposed with a settlement agreement announced Wednesday.

RIM announced that the company as well as "certain of its officers and directors" (which we know to be CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazardis) has settled with the Ontario Securities Commission over an investigation into stock option backdating at RIM over the last decade. The OSC still has to approve the settlement at a hearing scheduled for tomorrow.

The amount of the settlement was not disclosed; it's up to the … Read more

Research In Motion's co-CEOs could be facing a hefty fine for their involvement in yet another stock options-backdating scandal.

The Globe and Mail reports that the Ontario Securities Commission--the Province of Ontario's SEC--is considering imposing fines of up to C$100 million ($79 million) on RIM's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazardis as punishment for allowing stock options backdating to occur on their watch. Balsille would have to pay the majority of the fine, according to the report, which, if it reachs $100 million, would be a record for Canada.

Like many technology companies over the last decade, … Read more

The former general counsel of computer security firm McAfee was acquitted on Friday of fraud charges relating to alleged stock options backdating.

Kent Roberts, indicted in February 2007, was found not guilty on two of three felony counts of fraud in San Francisco federal court. The jury, following a two-week trial, was hung on a third count of falsifying accounting records. A mistrial was declared and Roberts could be retried on that count.

Roberts was the first general counsel at a U.S. corporation to be criminally tried for alleged stock options backdating violations, his lawyer's office said.

"… Read more

Apple executives have settled a shareholder lawsuit filed over its stock-option backdating practices for $14 million.

The executives themselves, including CEO Steve Jobs, won't actually have to cough up the cash: that's why they have insurance, according to the Associated Press. And the money actually goes to the corporation, not the shareholders themselves, because this was a "derivative" lawsuit that sought compensation on behalf of the company. Attempts by shareholders to sue on their own behalf have been stymied by the fact that Apple's stock has actually risen since the backdating was revealed in late … Read more

Former Apple general counsel Nancy Heinen has settled with the SEC over charges that she improperly backdated stock options at the company.

The SEC filed a lawsuit against Heinen last year charging her with cherry-picking grant dates for stock option awards to Apple executives--including CEO Steve Jobs--and falsifying paperwork in order to cover up the selection of the favorable dates. Stock option backdating is legal if properly disclosed, but dozens of companies--including CNET Networks--in the earlier part of this decade failed to do so, and executives at other companies have gone to prison as a result.

Heinen will pay $2.… Read more

Current and former members of Apple, including CEO Steve Jobs and several directors, have been sued again over their role in the company's stock options-backdating affair.

The latest case, filed in federal court in San Jose last Friday, was put on record Monday. Martin Vogel and Kenneth Mahoney, the plaintiffs, are charging several executives and directors of Apple with securities fraud for failing to disclose the company's practice of backdating certain stock option grants in the early part of this decade.

Apple has admitted that the company backdated certain option grants, including two awarded to Jobs, in order … Read more