The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has begun looking into potential insider trading violations over Apple's stock. The agency is apparently looking into whether or not stock traders managed to get non-public information about iPod sales and the health of CEO Steve Jobs before making Apple stock sales or purchase, according to the Huffington Post.

One hedge fund trader quoted in the SEC reports commented that "it almost looked at times like the buyers and sellers were working at the company," and added that he saw "some uncanny trading" going on.

Apparently the SEC is focusing its interest on four specific time periods and has begun asking the brokerage community for names of clients that bought and sold Apple stock during those times as well as whether or not any clients conducted transactions with insider information.

Based on the information available so far, it doesn't appear that the SEC is focusing its probe on Apple, but instead is looking at stock traders. Apple has not commented on the investigation.