Former Apple securities lawyer pleads guilty to insider trading charges

By Amber Neely

Gene Levoff, former senior director of corporate law for Apple, has pleaded guilty to six counts of security fraud -- the same type of fraud he was hired to prevent.

Gene Levoff

In 2019, Levoff was accused of arranging and executing a five-year insider trading scheme, where he allegedly used internal financial information to perform trades before they were publicly reported.

In 2020, he fought against the inditement, citing that the prosecution was unconstitutional. The court struck down the motion.

Now, Levoff has pleaded guilty to six counts of securities fraud, according to the Department of Justice, as spotted by The Verge.

Levoff was meant to be in charge of enforcing a blackout period that would prevent people with such knowledge from buying or selling stock ahead of disclosure, but instead, he allegedly benefited by securing profits worth approximately $227,000 and avoided losses of $377,000.

Levoff's sentencing is scheduled for November 10. He could face a maximum penalty of up to 120 years in prison and up to $30 million in fines.