Jobs Subpoenaed For Backdating Trial
09.21.07 - 11:46am
Steve Jobs is know for his genius marketing and for quietly slipping through the investigation in the stock options backdating scandal that Apple has been under fire for.
It is not over yet however, as Jobs has been subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission to give deposition in the civil stock-options backdating case involving Nancy Heinen, Apple’s former general counsel. Heinen, is considered by many to be the fall guy for Apple.
“It’s unfortunate that Nancy Heinen is being sued,” said Jesse Fried, a professor at Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy. “She did not have as much to gain from this backdating as Jobs did. She was presumably doing what she was asked to do or what she believed she was asked to do by Steve Jobs. I think that she may have served as a fall person.”
“I think (prosecutors) feared there would be a backlash if they went after (Jobs) and forced him out,” Fried said. “The market value of the company might drop by billions of dollars.”
Even though Jobs has been subpoenaed to testify, the SEC apparently has no plans to pursue a case against Jobs. Rather the subpoena is for Jobs to give evidence against Heinen.
Still Apple’s stock fell 1 percent on the news down to $139 as investors fear that if Steve Jobs is made a target his position as head CEO could be in question.
Jobs was cleared of any wrongdoing in an earlier investigation. He claimed he knew nothing and was unaware of the implication of the backdating. He was cleared by an investigative team headed by Al Gore, who coincidentally is on the Apple’s board of directors.
Heinen is accused of establishing fake minutes in which an imaginary board meeting took place. At the made-up meeting share options were supposedly legitimately approved, backdated to the most lucrative time. Jobs was one of the beneficiaries of the fraudulent meeting.
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