In a lawsuit filed last April, Apple's head honcho - Steve Jobs - has been issued a subpoena by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to testify against the backdating option grants case of former Apple general counsel, Nancy Heinen.

Jobs is just one of several employees of the company who will testify during the trial. Heinen asked for at least 45 despositions for the case, however, the SEC is limiting the number to 12 per party.

An investigation last April found that Heinen and former Apple Chief Financial Officer, Fred Anderson, backdated more than US$ 20 million in stock options in 2001 for jobs, themselves and other executives. Anderson agreed to pay US$ 3.5 million in fines and disgorgement of profit to avoid any charges pressed by the SEC.

Cupertino, the California-based Apple stated in an internal review that two questionable options were awarded to Jobs, but found no other anomalies in the current management, including Jobs.

Former Apple chief financial officer Fred Anderson has settled a complaint raised against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding some dubious corporate activities during his eight-year stint at Apple Computers.

Through a press release issued by his attorney, Anderson clarified that there was no fraud involved in the complaint and he is allowed by the SEC to continue his activities in business under the settlement terms. The statement pointed at Anderson's good reputation but made no admission or denial regarding the issue.

The statement also explained that such problems would not have surfaced if not for the influence that Apple founder Steve Jobs exerted over the former CFO. Anderson claims that Jobs assured him that all would be fine despite warnings that certain policies may be outside the bounds of legality.

The amount involved in the settlement remains undisclosed. Anderson has resigned from his duties at the computer company and is now serving other corporate interests.

The New York Times reports that Federal securities regulators won't be bringing civil charges against Apple over the whole stock options debacle that has hounded the company for nearly a year. The Cupertino-based company can now breathe a sigh of relief, but not everybody's in the clear just yet.

According to the Times, lawyers for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against two former Apple execs in connection to the options issue. Of the two defendants, former Apple general counsel Nancy R. Heinen will be contesting the accusations.

The other, Fred D. Anderson, chief financial officer from 1996 to 2004, apparently reached a settlement "without admitting or denying wrongdoing."

"Steve Jobs dodged a bullet," said Mark C. Zauderer, a New York trial lawyer who specializes in white-collar cases. "This is another circumstance where the government is going after an easier target. It will generally shy away from situations where the evidence is ambiguous or subject to different interpretations."

In the Business section of Times Online, it was reported that Apple has given warning that it could be removed from the highly-regarded NASDAQ Global Select Market, as the Cupertino-based company acknowledged for the first time that it was the subject of a federal investigation into its stock option practices.

According to the Times, Apple said that the investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could lead to further restatements and delays to its financial reporting. The company revealed "irregularities" last June in its stock option grants and took an US$ 84 million (£43 million) charge six months later.

The company also noted that the investigation could "subject the company to a potential delisting from the NASDAQ Global Select Market". This could cause a decrease in the level of confidence investors have in Apple as well as a loss of respectability.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been interviewed on CNBC following the September 12 media event in San Francisco concerning the company's latest announcements. Jobs told CNBC that Apple is very happy with its iPod sales and has good expectations for the forthcoming quarters. As far as overall sales are concerned, the Apple CEO said Â?WeÂ?ve never sold this many of anything before, and so weÂ?re learning as we go, but so far weÂ?re pretty happy.Â?

Jobs also commented on the stock-options irregularities on AppleÂ?s finances, and he admitted that Apple did discover some discrepancies but is not facing an SEC probe. Apple are conducting an internal investigation into the finance books, but Jobs added that the internal investigation will be completed within Â? a not terribly distant futureÂ?. Watch the video to see the interview!

Nasdaq sent a letter to Apple: you may be kicked out of Nasdaq. This would be very harmful for Apple's finances because Nasdaq is the stock market that lists more companies and trades more shares per day than any other market in the USA.

Why is Nasdaq threatening to ax Apple? Nasdaq requires the quarterly profit report (or 10-Q); if you don't file your 10-Q, then it's goodbye stock listing.

But Apple announced that it would delay filing its 10-Q because its outside legal counsel is not yet done investigating what may be irregularities in the company's accounting of stock options for employees. This investigation was announced by Apple back in June 29. They will, of course, be reporting their findings to the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC, the US government body that watches over such things).

And the SEC has been busy investigating people over stock options for employees (basically like what's happening with the SEC investigating THQ for its options grants).

Several other companies are under investigation, and some of their executives have even been indicted for options-related fraud.

Apple has notified the Security and Exchange Commission that it will miss the deadline for filing the quarterly report detailing its financial figures for the most recent period. Unfortunately, delaying this report might be the most insignificant problem facing the company if the SEC launches an investigation into the recent stock option post-dating scandal that is still unresolved.

Amid rumors of financial irregularities, Apple launched an investigation of its stock option granting practices. Recent allegations suggest that numerous companies (including Apple) have come to rely upon the practice of post-dating stock options for favored executives in order to get them more compensation.

Apple has also admitted that it will have to restate earnings reports for the past 15 quarters and is conducting a probe that might end up causing Apple to restate earnings all the way back to 2002. Speculation at Apple has been that their investigation will uncover substantial discrepancies that will need to be accounted for in the revised earnings statements.

It seems as though many of our corporate leaders are trapped in a pattern of illegal behavior. First it was Enron, using offshore shell companies to hide and accumulate bad debt. After the good folks at Enron got burned, people realized they needed to find a new scam that would fool everyone and allow them to rake in the cash.

This time, Apple and other companies promised massive blocks of stock options (sometimes a large percentage of the company) to top level executives for the excellent work they do every day. The problem is that they allowed these executives to pick the day they wanted the stock purchase orders to go through at the end of the year, when it was simple to look back and choose the day with the lowest price to buy your personal shares.

The folks at Apple had to know better than that, so why did they do it? Apple certainly isn't the only one guilty of trying to jump on the stock option post- dating bandwagon, but many (like myself) imagined Apple to be different than most companies. It is possible that the post dating episode was an oversight and that there was no irregular financial activity going on, but the whole thing just smells bad.