According to a Law.com report, Apple is set to publish its annual report before this current week is out, the slowest week of the year.

According to the report Government officials are looking closely into the stock option probe, which concerns falsified documents forged by company officials to maximise profitability.

Government officials are looking into 100+ backdating investigations trying to determine which ones it will pursue with criminal charges and SEC inquiries.

“When there are falsified documents, the government views them as an intent to defraud, because people generally don’t falsify documents unless they’re trying to make things different from reality,” said Keith Krakaur, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York working on backdating cases.

Krakaur believes that government lawyers are focusing on fake records as a means of proving that company officials knew their actions were wrong.

In Apple’s official statement made in October it states that “the investigation raised serious concerns regarding the actions of two former officers in connection with the accounting, recording and reporting of stock option grants.”

Individuals with knowledge of the case at hand believe Nancy Heinen and Fred Anderson, the former general counsel and CFO, respectively.

Heinen departed in the Spring of 2006 before the stock options probe was revealed, although sources state that she left due to a tiff with CEO Steve Jobs, completely unrelated to the stock options probe.

Anderson retired as Apple Chief Financial Officer in 2004 but remained on the Apple board until October of 2006.

The report made by Apple in October also stated that, “in a few instances,” Jobs “was aware that favorable grant dates had been selected, but he did not receive or otherwise benefit from these grants and was unaware of the accounting implications.”

In the last few weeks Jobs has apparently begun to seek outside legal help separate from that of Apple lawyers.

Apple remains insistent that it will restate its Form 10-K by this Friday, which is expected to be a significant restatement.