Hawaii pension fund sues Apple Computer

San Francisco >> Apple Computer Inc. and its chief executive, Steve Jobs, are accused in a lawsuit of hyping the introduction of the G4 Cube and iMac personal computers to keep the computer maker's stock price high. Jobs and executives at Apple told investors the line of colorful personal computers introduced in July 2000 would sell well in the education market when they knew the products had defects, members of the Hawaii Structural Iron Workers Pension Trust Fund allege in court papers.

After four top executives sold 370,000 shares for $22 million, Apple revealed that G4 Cube and iMac computers had production problems and sales of the computers in the primary and secondary education market shrank in the fourth quarter of 2000, according to the complaint filed in San Francisco federal court last week. The suit seeks class status for investors who purchased shares between July 19 and Sept. 28, 2000.

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