The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is planning to review Apple's disclosures about Apple CEO Steve Jobs's health problems, according to Bloomberg.
People familiar with the matter are quick to note a review does not necessarily indicate the SEC has seen evidence of wrongdoing. However, many Apple investors have been frustrated with Apple's limited and contradictory disclosures regarding the issue, specifically regarding statements made on January 5th and January 14th. The SEC will likely be looking into those statements' effect of causing fluctuations in the company's stock price:
To bring any case, the SEC would probably have to show the company tried to benefit by withholding information about an unambiguous diagnosis, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and SEC lawyer who now teaches at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.
"It would be difficult, and certainly a new area of the law," Henning said. "You would have to pin down exactly what they knew, and with a health issue -- unlike a merger or a decline in revenue -- it's not subject to definitive answers."
