Falsified Docs Cost Apple's Name

Apple faked its stock options documents in order to boost their profits and the share values in the market. The malpractices that the former officials followed were found in the three-month long internal investigation by the US federal investigators, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges.

Apple faked its stock options documents in order to boost their profits and the share values in the market. The malpractices that the former officials followed were found in the three-month long internal investigation by the US federal investigators, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges.

Apple would release its annual report on Friday due to the findings of the investigation.

According to a legal newspaper, The Recorder, the Apple’s stock options documents are being closely scrutinized by the investigators of this case. In its online edition late Tuesday, it reported that the Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs publicly apologized for his actions in the October statement and hired an external counsel.

"When there are falsified documents, the government views them as an intent to defraud, because people generally don't falsify documents unless they're trying to make things different from reality," said Keith Krakaur, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York working on backdating cases.

Based on the falsification of records, the officials would segregate the 100-plus investigations into criminal and civil SEC inquiries. The government lawyers are trying to prove the actions of the executives wrong doing on the basis of falsified records.

Nancy Heinen, former senior vice president and general counsel, and Fred Anderson, former chief financial officer were involved in the case related to accounting, recording and reporting stock-option grants.

With the internal investigation coming to an end, Anderson and Heinen resigned. Anderson said that his resignation was in Apple’s best interest; however, Heinen resigned quietly without any comments as per the company’s spokesman.

After the announcement of the report, none of the company officials were available to comment on it.

In its October SEC filing, Apple said that, "in a few instances," Jobs "was aware that favorable grant dates had been selected, but he did not receive or otherwise benefit from these grants and was unaware of the accounting implications."

The trend of Apple’s (AAPL’s) share price moved downwards with the announcement on the internal investigation report on Tuesday; however, got stabilized during the afternoon.

Apple disclosed its stock options practices along with backdating of options to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice along with 200 other companies.