Jobs, Top Apple Names Get Summons in Backdating Case

April 23rd, 2008 at 3:00 PM - News by Jeff Gamet

The Boston Retirement Board is pursuing a stock option backdating lawsuit against Apple, and has issued summons to testify to CEO Steve Jobs as well as several other current and former board members from the company. The suit alleges that the companyis accounting practices cost over US$105 million in extra value for backdated stock options issued to Mr. Jobs.

Along with Mr. Jobs, William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Arthur Levinson, Jerome York, Gareth Chang, Edgar Wollard, Fred Anderson and Nancy Heinen have all been summoned to testify in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara.

Apple revealed in June 2006 that certain backdated stock option grants issued to company executives between 1997 and 2001 had been improperly backdated. Mr. Jobs received some of those grants, but later surrendered them to the company and was cleared of any wrong doing by an internally-commissioned independent investigation.

So far none of the suits brought against Apple for its backdating actions have gained any ground against the Mac and iPod maker. To date, the cases have either stalled because of a lack of evidence, or have been dismissed outright like the New York City Employeesi Retirement System suit.

This new suit, however, claims to be different because it offers evidence obtained from an investigation into confidential records, according to FindLaw.com. Since the evidence found in those records may still be considered confidential by the court, the group may have to file an amendment or present their findings in a sealed version of the case.

According to the retirement group, "The documents Apple has produced provide critical details about Appleis backdating practices and confirm that all of Appleis directors were aware of and participated in the backdating scheme."

Apple is following its standard company policy regarding pending litigation and is not commenting on the case.