SEC begins investigation into Apple / Jobs health disclosure

By on Jan 21, 2009 at 3:05 PM
News January 21, 2009

File this one under “duh”. With all of the commotion caused by Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ announcement earlier this month, it was only a matter of time before the SEC began looking into the matter. For those of you who have been living with the Fraggles for the past few months, allow us to recap the situation in one short series of sentence fragments: Jobs was sick. Apple denied Jobs was sick. Jobs admitted he was sick. As Stevo plays such an integral role in all things Apple, it’s a no-brainer that investors deserved to know what was going on.The question is, did Apple do anything illegal?

To bring any case, the SEC would probably have to show the company tried to benefit by withholding information about an unambiguous diagnosis, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and SEC lawyer who now teaches at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

“It would be difficult, and certainly a new area of the law,” Henning said. “You would have to pin down exactly what they knew, and with a health issue — unlike a merger or a decline in revenue — it’s not subject to definitive answers.”

While the SEC’s inquiry isn’t yet official, a source close to Bloomberg spilled the beans and you can expect official word to come soon as a result. Either way, it looks like the SEC will be treading on some new and tricky ground if its findings are worth pursuing.

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  • JarrodLilly

    That’s rediculous. Give it up

  • a

    not ridiculous. its the sec’s job. you’re obviously an idiot

  • mangenius

    please explain how its ridiculous. Id like to see how many execs off loaded their shares prior to announcing the news lol

  • Sauce

    Well, regardless of Steve actually being mortally ill or not, the spotlight is still on Apple and not MSoft! Ha ha ha!

    I personally thing Steve is fine but if the SEC wants to investigate then so be it. I really think that Steve would have the brains to step down and alert investors that he was unfit to continue as CEO for Apple.

    With that being said, the only thing the SEC might find out from all this is that Steve has an abnormally high midichlorian count.

  • backbeat

    Given the “anything goes” of the past 8-years, it’s reasonable to expect the SEC to verify that a move as substantial as this has dotted all its I’s’ and crossed all its T’s.

    Outside of its shear size, this has nothing to do with Apple, in particular.

  • lego

    Actually what is ridiculous is expecting a company to break the law and reveal CONFIDENTIAL health information of an employee. I know Steve Jobs is a vital part of the company, but every person is entitled BY LAW to the right to keep their health information confidential.

  • MiniMe

    @lego,

    Once news of your health begin making multibillion waves on the market it is no longer private. Especially in cases when you cover up this information.

  • backbeat

    @MiniMe who said: “Once news of your health begin making multibillion waves on the market it is no longer private”

    Completely unfounded and untrue.

  • EBGreen

    They aren’t forcing him to reveal anything about his health. They are determining if someone had knowledge of his health and used that knowledge to gain an unfair trading or business advantage over others.

  • Steve Jobs Corpse

    Apple should be investigated. The flip flopping over Jobs health issues is suspicious. Everyone knows Jobs is Apple so everyone knows this news is a really big deal, makes sense to try and hide it.

  • Rosario

    Thanks EBGreen, I was confused about what exactly was going on.

  • macman

    As I said about 2 weeks ago on a post about Steve. He is sick and will be stepping out. Now it is out (temporarily – wink, wink). History has show how Steve goes is how Apple goes, so lying about his health and status with the company to effect share value is illegal. Also, Steve sold off some of his shares! Regardless, bummer about his health. Still the rumor is that the cancer is back and he is not doing well! Seen family member go through this – not a pretty site. Hope you all the best Steve.

  • Crunch

    Apple is a PUBLICLY traded company which has, thus far, always been able to get away with being super silent about its innovation, upcoming projects and products alike. Largely due to Steve Jobs.

    So now that the “brain”‘s out of the company, hopefully not for long and I do wish him the very best, but nonetheless, people who put their hard-earned cash into the stock are most deserving to know what’s going on, given the “shrouded-in-secrecy” company that Apple has been, at least when under Jobs.

  • bluehorseshoe

    @ Lego

    It’s also law that if a company makes a statement about something personal, it’s no longer personal. The comment can be considered manipulating the market, although we know it most likely wasn’t. The way the SEC will determine right and wrong is the date of the comment and the date of the ‘official’ diagnosis (along with some insider option trading, if it got by corporate compliance). They’ll also look for intent, etc., although that will be hard to prove.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • backbeat

    @Crunch: It’s Soylent Green. ;)

    @bluehorseshoe: The investigators may well learn some specifics of Jobs’ health as a matter of due diligence where its relationship to the timing of Apple’s public pronouncements are concerned. However, that does not breach the confidentiality of Jobs’ medical records nor does it allow for any public access to the same. Unless an illegal breach [leak] were to occur, Jobs would have to wave his rights for the public to learn more specifics.

  • aplluvh8

    what i don’t understand is why they have to act like jobs is god, there are plenty of other capable people there who can handle the day to day tasks of running the company. if its just an innovative thinker they need, then they should just ask me :)

  • Sody

    HIPAA!!!!

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