Apple meeting minutes

An Apple shareholder has gained limited access to confidential documents pertaining to the company's options backdating scandal, but will not be able to share the documents with the public or other shareholders. Refusing broader access, California Superior Judge Jack Komar said at a hearing in San Jose Monday that he would order Apple to turn over to the Boston Retirement Board minutes from the meetings of Apple's board of directors and board committees from 1997 to the present, according to the The Mercury News. The report says that the judge also said he would order Apple to give the retirement board records relating to how it accounted for the stock options it handed out during that period. However, documents protected by other privileges such as attorney-client privilege will not be available for examination.

Hoping to obtain better insight into Apple's option scandal, the Boston Retirement Board sued Apple for the documents last year in an effort to assess the role of Apple's board of directors in the options backdating fiasco. Apple previously admitted that CEO Steve Jobs had knowledge of the backdating but said he was not familar has discussed the role played by Chief Executive Steve Jobs and other executives, but has been largely silent on its directors' role.

The retirement board, however, will not be given access to privileged information about the company's internal investigation into the options backdating scandal. The report notes that "the judge denied what the retirement board's executive officer dubbed the 'heart' of its suit: a request for access to documents related to the company's internal investigation into its backdating fiasco. And any documents that Apple hands over to the retirement board will be under a protective order, meaning they can't be disclosed to anyone else."

Last week, Jobs received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a deposition in a lawsuit against Apple's former general counsel, Nancy Heinen. The SEC targeted Heinen in late April, accusing her of backdating stock options for Jobs and other Apple executives. Jobs reportedly received 7.5 million backdated shares and suggested profitable dates for options other than his own, according to the company.

by MacNN Staff