The Securities and Exchange Commission is widening its investigation into Steve Jobs’s handling of stock option grants after it emerged that the Apple chief executive had signed an options package for a Pixar ally during his time running the film company.

Mr Jobs, who headed Pixar for 15 years until last May — as well as running Apple for much of the time — in 2001 signed off on a particularly well-timed options grant for John Lasseter, director of hit films such as Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, according to SEC filings.

By allegedly backdating the day on which Mr Lasseter was granted the option to buy 1 million Pixar shares by more than three months to December 6, 2000, their lowest point in the previous year, the potential pay-out was significantly increased, the filings show.

By the close of trading on March 20, 2001, the day before the contract was signed, Pixar’s shares had climbed 24 per cent, increasing Mr Lasseter’s potential profit by $6.4 million.

Mr Lasseter, now chief creative officer of Disney’s animation studios, sold about 880,000 of the shares at various prices before converting the remaining shares to Disney stock following its acquisition of Pixar in May last year.

Mr Jobs relinquished control of Pixar after the deal, although he now sits on the board of Disney, in which he is the biggest shareholder.

Mr Jobs’s role in signing off on Mr Lasseter’s options turns the spotlight on the Apple chief executive once more. He is already under investigation by the SEC as part of an inquiry into the computer and iPod maker’s share-option practices.

The SEC has asked Apple for more documents on the circumstances surrounding various stock options grants even though the company’s internal investigation cleared Mr Jobs of any wrongdoing. It is not known what part, if any, he had in selecting the grant date of Mr Lasseter’s options at Pixar.

The most sensitive case the SEC is investigating at Apple relates to options granted to Mr Jobs in December 2001. The award was backdated to October, when Apple’s share price was lower, thereby guaranteeing a much bigger profit.

Apple would not comment on the Pixar case yesterday, although the computer maker has consistently said that Mr Jobs was not aware of accounting implications of backdating and that he later returned the options so that he would not benefit from the practice. However, Apple has acknowledged that it falsified records to show that a board meeting was held to approve the move when no such meeting took place.

Analysts said yesterday that Mr Jobs’s participation in questionable stock option grants at a separate company that he headed served to intensify the growing cloud of suspicion over his head.

Pixar, Walt Disney and the SEC also declined to comment on the Pixar stock option case.

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