AAPL Apple Inc

By Maria Armental 

A former Apple Inc. senior lawyer has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of exploiting his position to illegally trade shares in the company ahead of Apple's financial reports, according to court documents.

The civil complaint said Gene Daniel Levoff used private information that he accessed through his job to illegally trade at least three times in 2015 and 2016.

Kevin Marino, an attorney for Mr. Levoff, said federal prosecutors in New Jersey also filed a criminal complaint against the former Apple executive. "We look forward to defending him in both matters," Mr. Marino said.

Mr. Levoff was senior director of corporate law, responsible for Apple's compliance with securities law -- including insider-trading policies and providing advice on securities filings and financial reporting. He also served on a core group of high-ranking executives, the disclosure committee, and as a corporate officer of every major Apple subsidiary.

Through the trading in question, Mr. Levoff avoided losses of about $382,000, the SEC said in the complaint filed in federal court in New Jersey.

For example, the SEC said Mr. Mr. Levoff knew in July 2015 that Apple would miss analysts' third-quarter estimates for iPhone unit sales -- and sold roughly $10 million of Apple stock, virtually all of his holdings, and avoided losses when the company's shares fell 4% after it reported quarterly financial results.

Apple fired Mr. Levoff last September, the SEC said. Apple didn't immediately respond to request for comment.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 13, 2019 13:45 ET (18:45 GMT)

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