SEC investigates Steve Jobs' health

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Steve Jobs' health problems to make sure that investors were not misled before he took a leave of absence. The regulatory agency's review, disclosed on Wednesday, does not mean that investigators have found evidence of wrongdoing. However, investigators have been trying to find out about Jobs' health for weeks amid disclosures that Jobs is considering a liver transplant to deal with complications resulting from treatment for pancreatic cancer.

"The good news flipped by the bad news makes one wonder what Apple knew," said James Cox, a law professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. "It's not surprising for the SEC to come in and look afterward, given the pressure and publicity regarding their handling of a lot of cases," such as criticism of the SEC's response to Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Apple's fortunes over Jobs' health have whipsawed in recent months. Lasts last month, Jobs said he would remain CEO while seeking a "relatively simple treatment for a nutritional ailment." Nine days later, he announced he would take a five-month medical leave after learning his health issues were "more complex."

It's unlikely there will be any repercussions. The SEC would have to show the company tried to benefit by withholding information about an unambiguous diagnosis, according to 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."

For more on the SEC and Jobs:
- check out this BusinessWeek.com article

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