Hey, have some investors been screwing around illegally with the shares of high-flying Apple, Inc., a superstar of the investment scene?

Apparently, the Securities & Exchange Commission is suspicious this may be the case and has kicked off an investigation into the trading in Apple's securities both here and abroad. This is revealed in a series of documents it recently fired off to the brokerage community.

I have obtained copies of those internal SEC documents from a regulatory contact. Interestingly, the nature of its interest shows that the commission is not investigating, as is usually the case, the trading that occurred in a specific time period, but rather, in this instance, in four specific time periods. This suggests the SEC could be looking into more than one potential violation in the trading in Apple shares.

What the agency is seeking in its queries to the brokerage community are the names of its clients who specifically bought and sold Apple's securities in those four time periods and whether anyone did so with a knowledge of non-public, inside information.