Business Highlights

SAN JOSE — Ignorance can be bliss, but it’s not a tight defense, lawyers say.

When Apple Computer Inc. disclosed Wednesday its internal investigation had uncovered some stock-option backdating, the company said CEO Steve Jobs was aware of the practice but unaware of its accounting implications. The probe also did not find any misconduct by Jobs or other current officers, the company said.

Many details remain unknown, but the acknowledgment did help appease Wall Street worries that Jobs, the legendary and charismatic leader of Apple, would somehow lose his position over a stock-option imbroglio that has ensnared more than 100 other companies nationwide.

In a blend of semantics and general legal analysis, however, securities experts say Jobs could still face some kind of penalty over the situation.

"Ignorance is usually not a good defense,” said Jeffrey Siegel, a veteran securities lawyer and partner at Blank Rome LLC in New York. "Executives are expected to understand the laws applicable to their companies and the rules of their required disclosures.”

The practice of backdating occurs when a stock option’s exercise price is set at a point lower than the prevailing market price, which can inflate the recipient’s award.

The manipulation itself isn’t necessarily illegal, but securities laws require companies to properly disclose the practice in its accounting and settle any charges that may result.

Agents look for negligence at spinach plants; companies could be held liable

SAN FRANCISCO — In opening a criminal investigation into two produce companies involved in the contaminated spinach outbreak, federal agents are following a script first written a decade ago to hold companies responsible for mass food poisoning.

In 1996, authorities secured the first criminal conviction in a food poisoning case when juice-maker Odwalla Inc. was heavily fined for tainted apple juice that killed a baby. That was followed by a case against Sara Lee Corp. five years later, which led to a fine for tainted hot dogs and lunch meats that killed 15 people.

Rates on 30-year mortgages drop to lowest level since March

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down this week to a seven-month low.

Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.30 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent last week. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Rates have been headed lower for more than two months as financial markets have become convinced that a slowing economy will help ease inflation pressures and that will keep the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates further.<