New York City Employees’ Retirement System on Wednesday said it reached a $16.5million settlement with Apple Inc. in a class-action lawsuit that accused the tech giant of improper stock-option backdating, confirmed Michael Loughran, a spokesman for New York City Comptroller John C. Liu.
Along with the $14 million, to be distributed to plaintiffs, Apple will contribute $2.5 million to 12 universities with corporate governance programs, according to a news release issued by the New York City Law Department and the New York City Comptroller’s Office, which oversees the $37.3 billion system and four other New York City pension plans.
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2006, and the New York pension system was appointed by the court as lead plaintiff on Jan. 19, 2007, Carolyn Wolpert, deputy chief of the pensions division in the New York City Law Department, said in an e-mail response to questions.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, Calif., will consider preliminary approval of the settlement on Thursday, the news release said.
Michael A. Cardozo, chief legal officer for New York City and counsel to the five city pension funds, said in the news release that “we are happy to have reached an accord with Apple after four years of litigation.”
The settlement affects investors who purchased Apple stock between Aug. 24, 2001, and June 29, 2006, “when Apple first disclosed irregularities in the manner in which it had accounted for thousands of stock options,” the news release said.
Officials at Apple were unavailable for comment.
