Steve Jobs Sued in Civil Suit “Cover-Up Case”
01.05.07 - 04:53pm
“This is no longer a case in which the defense says, ‘We didn’t understand the accounting implications.’ It’s now a cover-up case, and the backdating was more widespread than we initially thought,” said attorney Mark Molumphy.
The suite which was filed December 18th has consolidated and amended 11 shareholder suits that were initially filed in July. The civil suit focuses on grants, stock options Jobs received and sold, and includes stock options granted at Pixar.
In 1997 three top executives Robert Calderoni, Fred Andersen and Jonathan Rubinstein were given stock options to buy more than two million shares. The next day Jobs announced that Microsoft would invest more than $150 million in Apple - the stock than jumped 48%, or $7.7 million in a single day.
The investigation also goes into stock Jobs sold one day after improper backdating allegations were reported. Jobs made a cool 295 million in the sale of that stock. Along with this multiple stock options Jobs received just before subsequent splits are also being brought into question.
The suit then probes Steve Jobs role in Pixar grants. Jobs was owner and board member of Pixar at a time when five of seven Pixar grants were recorded at the lowest possible price in the months they were granted. Analyst said the odds of such an occurrence happening naturally is one in 112 million.
Steve Jobs was supposedly cleared of any wrongdoing last Friday by an internal investigation committee led by former vice president Al Gore, however documents disclosed have been reported as falsified. One document falsified supposedly portrayed a board meeting that never occurred justifying the date of a large grant given to Steve Jobs. Legal experts say these revelations could result in not just civil charges but criminal charges as well.
Even with the government moving against Jobs few expect Jobs to be “moved” out of Apple. He is seen as the savior of Apple as Apple’s stock has grown 1025% or $72 billion since the iPod inception in 2001. Says Harvard Business School management professor David B. Yoffie: “Obviously, these are inappropriate activities that anyone should be ashamed of. But it wouldn’t be in shareholders’ best interests to have Steve Jobs leave for something that happened four years ago that didn’t have a material impact on their holdings.”
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