Apple, Steve Jobs Face Securities Fraud Lawsuit

Jim Dalrymple, Macworld.com

Wednesday, July 02, 2008 11:50 AM PDT

Apple's legal woes over the backdating of stock options is not over yet. A new class action lawsuit has been brought against the company, two former executives and several members of the Board of Directors, according to InformationWeek

Filed in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., Martin Vogel and Kenneth Mahoney brought the suit against former CFO Fred Anderson, former counsel Nancy Heinen, CEO Steve Jobs and board members William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Arthur Levinson, and Jerome York.

The lawsuit alleges the accused intentionally filed false documents, concealing stock option grants to executives.

"The defendants knew that options were not granted on the dates that were disclosed to shareholders and falsified the company's records to create the appearance of illegality, and thus bear direct responsibility for their actions," reads the complaint. "Here, Jobs and the Individual Defendants clearly appreciated the fraudulent nature of their conduct."

Apple uncovered irregularities in stock option grants in June 2006 and immediately launched an investigation. Six months later Apple released its findings and cleared CEO Steve Jobs of any wrongdoing. That left the blame to fall to former CFO Fred Anderson and former counsel Nancy Heinen.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later charged Heinen with fraudulently backdating stock options. Anderson agreed to a multimillion dollar settlement.

This is not the first lawsuit brought in the backdating scandal. An earlier lawsuit filed by the New York City Employees' Retirement System was dismissed in 2007.

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