AAPL Apple Inc

By Maria Armental 

A former technology worker at a biometrics company that Apple Inc. bought in 2012 agreed to pay nearly $280,000 to resolve insider trading accusations.

John F. Stimpson, at the time a senior network administrator at AuthenTec, didn't admit wrongdoing under the settlement agreement filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Reached by telephone, Mr. Stimpson declined to comment.

U.S. regulators accused the 49-year-old Florida resident of buying stock options on AuthenTec shares based on privileged information starting on July 9, 2012. The merger was announced on July 27 and caused AuthenTec's stock to surge, giving Mr. Stimpson $135,570 in trading profits in an IRA account under his name, according to SEC documents.

AuthenTec Inc. developed fingerprint-sensor technology.

In 2013, Apple introduced its first iPhone with a fingerprint sensor and said it intended to rely more heavily on biometric authentication.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2017 21:06 ET (01:06 GMT)

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