Filed under: Apple Corporate, Cult of Mac, Bad Apple
Financial Times: Forged Documents related to Jobs' options
Sources have informed The Financial Times of London that the forged documents at the center of the ongoing SEC investigation relate to illegal activities surrounding options given to Steven Jobs. According to the FT story, Jobs "was handed 7.5m stock options in 2001 without the required authorization from the company's board of directors." and that "Records that purported to show a full board meeting had taken place to approve Mr Jobs' remuneration, as required by Apple's procedures, were later falsified."If this is in fact the case, it certainly makes sense that Jobs would seek his own external legal counsel both to more closely protect his personal interests as well as put some distance between himself and the company as a whole.
Update: The FT article makes no mention of wrong doing by Jobs himself, and as such this post has been updated.
[via Cult of Mac]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dee said 3:41AM on 12-28-2006
Mommy I'm scared.
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Oje Ihonvbere said 4:28AM on 12-28-2006
Don't worry, in the business world you can steal millions, get caught on Thursday, and be back at work Monday morning.
Or even better, Steal million, get caught, resign and live off a pension worth millions.
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James Donevan said 4:40AM on 12-28-2006
"...relate to illegal activities allegedly perpetrated by Steve Jobs himself."
Where did you read that little nugget? The FT story makes no mention of Jobs perpetrating any illegal activity, nor does it even hint at it. Rather it reports allegedly falsified board approval documents that approved stock options for Jobs. As this plays out, we will likely see why the CFO resigned so quickly. This is not news, Jobs relinquished these options some time ago when the irregularities first arose. It is only being reported in FT because someone has leaked briefing details directly from the Apple review. Backdating obviously involves falsified documents and the accompanying falsified board approvals. It is hard to imagine how you and Scott envisioned the problem arising without falsified documents. Your amateurism is showing again.
BTW, it is standard practice in any corporate legal action of this nature for executives to retain their own counsel simply to avoid any conflict of interest among representation. Jobs, like most CEOs, very likely has counsel on standing retainer to look after such interests/concerns.
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judith said 5:42AM on 12-28-2006
Steve jobs is all about oil. Apples shares move with the gas prices.
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Babble said 6:28AM on 12-28-2006
Apparently, this relates back to Kahney's original headline, which, like this particular gem is carefully worded to imply (without claming directly) that Steve is personally involved in a faked document scandal.
The FT article itself doesn't make any claims about anyone in particular, of course; it merely reports that Apple found evidence of falsified documents and turned them over to the SEC.
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maczealot said 6:45AM on 12-28-2006
Apple CFO and henchman burned as sacrifices on altar of public shame. Steve Jobs singed, hires lawyers to treat burns on fingers. In news of health and medicine, threats of prison sentences found to cure affluenza. Greed loses cooperate allure in 2006. Apple gets scared straight. MacWorld Expo on schedule.
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Steve said 7:32AM on 12-28-2006
Trouble, trouble... A lot of CEO's, even long time ones like at UnitedHealth, have lost their jobs over these kinds of scandals. I don't know if Apple's board has the balls to cut Jobs loose, and it would be counterproductive to the shareholders, but it's a very real possibility.
The unbelievable thing is that, why doesn't Jobs just pull a salary for cripes sake?! That would have avoided all of this ridiculous scandal.
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Edwin said 7:40AM on 12-28-2006
I wonder why people who are rich, always seem to want more money. Its like a disease.
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michel said 8:16AM on 12-28-2006
and now, the messia will be burnt. always burn our heroes. always.
seriously, I don't care, it's legal stuff and professionals will solve that.
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Scott said 8:08AM on 12-28-2006
The forged documents do NOT point at jobs in the manner you state, you mindless idiots! Get your facts straight
[quote]In October, the company largely exonerated Mr. Jobs over the matter, saying that while he had been “aware” of the backdating “in a few instances.” he “did not receive or otherwise benefit from these grants and was unaware of the accounting implications.”[/quote]
You can find the above referenced quote from this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16373057/
If you're going to report - check your facts!!!!
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Dee said 9:14AM on 12-28-2006
I don't know, I'm scared just in case. I suppose I'm a worrysome Apple whore.
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Josh said 9:57AM on 12-28-2006
#8...who says just rich people want more money? I think if you take a poll of people on the street, nine out of ten people will want more money. The tenth, who doesn't, is probably crazy and thinks he's Napoleon.
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natobasso said 11:03AM on 12-28-2006
Jobs hired an attorney because his quit right before this whole stock options fiasco broke. Do your friggin research!
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Jasen said 10:25AM on 12-28-2006
Agreed. This is pretty sloppy reporting. Maybe Jobs will sick his personal lawyer on you guys for slander or somesuch.
The report just says someone, somewhere falsified the BoD meeting. Nancy Heinen and Fred Anderson, the company's former general counsel and chief financial officer, respectively, are likely where the fingers should point.
- Jasen.
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jh said 12:31PM on 12-28-2006
Wow, you fanboys are cute.
Look, the guy got handed 7.5 million dollars in stock options, illegally. He was on the board of directors for that meeting that never happened. Do you honestly think that he had no idea of what was going on? At all?
Come on, people. Be realistic. You don't get $7.5mil handed to you without having any idea where it came from. Jobs was smart to hire his own lawyer, because the SEC is going to wonder why he profited from this, and Apple's in house counsel likely won't be able to help the man.
He's insulating himself from the company, and that's often signs of a "without my permission" defense. There is an impending fight between him and Apple coming.
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Jim said 12:50PM on 12-28-2006
I'm not sure anyone really knows anything at this point. There are some who feel quite strongly and claim to know how this stuff works that Jobs will be fine while others feel just as strongly and also claim to know how this stuff works and thinks Jobs may be in deep doo-doo.
So with that said it's almost entertaining to think that since Apple has come full circle with Jobs coming back to the company and now may be ousted that what are the chances we see Scully at Apple again. ;)
Ease up guys...I'm joking about this but it might bring back the Newton. LOL!!!
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Steve said 1:05PM on 12-28-2006
#9 - Some of your facts may be factual, but do not represent *the* facts:
Your choice nugget is indeed quoted, and the 7.5m stock options in question were canceled before the exercise date, meaning Jobs didn't benefit from them.
BUT:
Although Jobs later surrendered those options before they were exercised -- implying that he did not benefit from them -- he was later handed 10 million split-adjusted shares as a replacement.
In October, a financial columnist argued that while Jobs did not directly benefit from the initial grant, he did so on the ensuing exchange because the value of the 10 million shares were themselves based on favorably chosen "backdated" dates.
Reference: http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2333
Therefore, he did benefit from a replacement of those options. This is shady boardroom behavior and goes against Apple's Corporate Governance and SEC rules. If true, the law was broken and there will be consequences, although not necessarily for Steve, unless he was involved in the process.
Options as a rule are a heinous and sneaky form of compensation. If companies want to give out bonuses, they should be in the form of cash, which is easily accounted for.
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Robert Boyle said 3:10PM on 12-28-2006
re: Jobs retaining his own counsel:
This has nothing to do with distancing himself from the company. In large government probes, corporations have found themselves on the receiving end of a great deal of pressure to waive their attorney-client confidentiality privilege. In the event that litigation commences, statements Jobs makes to corporate counsel may be introduced via counsel's testimony.
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Clair High said 3:11PM on 12-28-2006
"Options as a rule are a heinous and sneaky form of compensation. If companies want to give out bonuses, they should be in the form of cash, which is easily accounted for."
I couldn't agree with you more. I've been given more than my share of options. I hated every last one of them. Thankfully, I get them no more.
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jh said 1:17AM on 12-29-2006
Robert, that's what I mean. He's distancing himself from the company because now his best interests and the company's best interests are now mutually exclusive. The company counsel is NOT hired to protect Steve Jobs, but instead is hired to protect the company.
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