So Apple Computer may have done more than merely fixing the dates on executive equity options. Newspapers, presumably briefed by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the stockmarket regulator's investigators, say the computer maker covered up irregularities in a large 2001 options grant to Steve Jobs, the company's CEO. The windfall should have been approved at the time by the company's directors; documents showing the board authorized the transaction were later falsified, it's reported. Since Steve Jobs, the obnoxious and brilliant figure behind Apple's recovery, gave up the options before they were exercised, the legal jeopardy isn't as bad as it looks. But it's is a mess, in which Steve Jobs is personally entangled, more so than Apple has led investors to believe; and, at the very least, an unwelcome distraction when, in the run-up to Jobs' important keynote at the Macworld show, Apple wants the focus on its plans for mobile phones and television.

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