Apple 'falsified' share documents

Steve Jobs's options fingered

By John Oates, 28th December 2006

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Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs was given share options on the basis of falsified documents which claimed to show the board of directors had approved the stock grant, the FT has claimed.

Apple admitted back in June that it had incorrectly accounted for share options between 1997 and 2001. The SEC is investigating dozens of Silicon Valley firms for backdating or wrongly accounting for share options.

But the SEC is now looking at documents relating to the granting of 7.5 million options to Steve Jobs in 2001 which supposedly showed Apple's board of directors approved the grant. It believes these documents were falsified at a later date. According to the Financial Times, which broke the story, Apple will confirm the dodgy documents in an SEC filing later this week.

Apple claimed its own house was clean after an internal audit late last year which resulted in the resignation of chief financial officer Fred Anderson. Steve Jobs apologised at the time to Apple staff and shareholders.

Jobs never actually excercised the options in question.

Some stock market analysts are predicting Jobs will not have to carry the can and shares will bounce back if ex-Apple staff are blamed for the problem. Legal newswires report that Jobs has hired his own independent legal counsel.