Apple faces more scrutiny over options

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Shares of Apple Computer Inc. fell more than 1.5 percent Thursday after new details of a federal investigation into the company’s stock options practices raised questions about the role of its charismatic CEO, Steve Jobs.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that Jobs received 7.5 million stock options in 2001 without the required board authorization and that documents were later falsified to indicate otherwise.

Shares of the iPod and Macintosh computer maker shed $1.30, to $80.22 in Thursday afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

In October, Apple said its own internal probe had found no misconduct by any current officers and largely exonerated Jobs of any wrongdoing.

Late Tuesday, The Recorder, a San Francisco-based legal publication reported federal prosecutors were looking into forged documents at Apple related to administering stock options. It cited people with knowledge of the case who requested anonymity because the case is the subject of criminal and civil government investigations.

The paper also said Jobs has hired his own attorneys outside of the company’s legal team to represent him.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said the company is providing the Securities and Exchange Commission with the results of its internal investigation into its stock options granting practices, but had no further comment.

Apple is one of nearly 200 companies that have disclosed SEC, DOJ or internal investigations of potential backdating of stock options. Backdating refers to retroactively pegging the strike price of an option to a day when the stock traded cheaply. Options with low strike prices are more valuable to their owner because they are less expensive to exercise.