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.
