A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Gene Levoff, a former senior lawyer at Apple, must pay a $1.15 million fine in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil case related to insider trading.
U.S. District Judge William Martini in Newark, New Jersey, acknowledged that while Levoff “was not living excessively,” his violations were especially egregious given his former role in enforcing Apple’s insider trading policies.
Levoff had served as senior director of corporate law at Apple until the company fired him in September 2018.
Prosecutors charged him five months later, accusing him of making stock trades based on advance nonpublic information about Apple’s earnings announcements.
In June 2022, Levoff pleaded guilty to securities fraud and received a sentence from Martini in December that included four years of probation, 2,000 hours of community service, and a $604,000 forfeiture.
The SEC proposed a fine triple Levoff’s estimated $384,400 profit or avoided losses on six trades. Levoff argued in court papers that the fine was unnecessary, claiming he had already been punished enough and had made no effort to hide his stress-induced trading, which he labeled as “self-sabotage.”
However, Judge Martini pointed out that Levoff, a Stanford University law school graduate, knew his trading was wrong and could handle the fine given his estimated $13 million net worth.
“Regardless of why he was trying to get caught, he acted knowingly and willfully,” Martini wrote. Kevin Marino, Levoff’s lawyer, expressed disappointment but acknowledged that Judge Martini had been fair and even-handed throughout the case. “Mr. Levoff is pleased to put this matter behind him and move on with his life,” Marino said in an email.
