The US Department of Justice has halted its criminal investigation into stock options backdating at Apple without bringing charges against the company or any of its current or former executives, according to two lawyers involved in the case.

The computer maker was among the most prominent of more than 200 companies to be investigated over the practice, in which the grant dates of stock options are changed using hindsight to inflate their value. Fred Anderson, Apple’s former chief financial officer, and Nancy Heinen, former general counsel, were among those under investigation for alleged improper manipulation of stock options grants.