According to Bloomberg, Apple’s former corporate legal director Gene Levoff was sentenced today to a fine and four years of probation for insider trading. Levov had faced up to two years in prison, but will avoid jail time. Levov's duties at Apple were supposed to include ensuring Apple employees complied with the company's insider trading policies, including enforcing "blackout periods" before and after Apple's earnings reports, but he ended up committing the very crime he was responsible for avoiding.
Because of his position, Levov had access to relevant information before Apple released its earnings to the public. He used this information to buy Apple stock before the earnings were better than expected and sell the stock when the earnings were weaker than expected. Before being fired from Apple in 2018, Levov earned about $277,000 and avoided losses of about $377,000.
Levov was sentenced today after pleading guilty last June to six counts of securities fraud stemming from insider trading. In addition to four years of probation, Levoff will pay approximately $604,000.
Federal prosecutors argued Levov should be jailed on insider trading charges to deter other company executives from committing similar crimes, but the judge overseeing the case said he didn't think it was necessary because Levov would lose his job and never be able to practice law again.