iPhone News Updated

Apple Manager Bribed More than $1M for Ipod, Iphone Info Arrested

Apple Manager Bribed More than $1M for Ipod, Iphone Info Arrested

In the Information Age where intellectual property value is growing exponentially, at times more than physical assets, modern tech giant Apple will do all means to defend the fruits of its costly R&D – especially the iPhone and the iPod products.

A recent testament to that statement is a midlevel manager’s arrest over various illegal cash flows in exchange for divulging highly confidential company information related to the said products to more than six iPod and iPhone accessory vendors.

Global supply manager Paul Shin Devine was accused of orchestrating a scrupulous scheme of proprietary knowledge sharing, enabling suppliers, such as Singaporean citizen Andrew Ang, to close advantageous arrangements with the Cupertino, California-based information and technology company.

Thirty-seven-year-old Devine, resident of Sunnyvale, also in the same state, and Ang were indicted, jointly initiated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). They were set to face the federal grand jury composed of a panel of 23 members. Kickbacks, money laundering and wire fraud will be the case subjects.

Other companies who benefited from the unlawful information transfer

remain unspecified, merely mentioned as sources of component materials for the two popular products. Electronics manufacturing and exporting countries China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were said to be the locations of the unnamed firms.

A separate civil suit was also filed by the offending manager’s employer, claiming that Devine accumulated more than US$ 1 million prohibited profits in a number of years.

Various bank accounts scattered across different Asian countries served as the recipients of the kickbacks, some of which were even opened using his wife’s name. They were denominated in USD and other foreign currencies, directly set up during his travels to the region, according the indictment details.

CPK Engineering is also one of the alternative avenues tapped by the corrupt officer to course through the cleverly concealed bribes.

To evade his act from doubts from his co-employees, the payments were deceptively labeled as “sample”.

Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling issued a statement asserting that

“Apple is committed to the highest ethical standards in the way we do business. We have zero tolerance for dishonest behavior inside or outside the company.”

The IRS reports that indicted manager is now under the custody of U.S. Marshals Service. He will be the U.S. Northern District Court in San Jose’s “guest” tomorrow, August 16, at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, whereabouts of the representative of the Asian vendors is still unknown, with IRS Agent Arlette Lee refusing to comment.

[Thanks: http://timesnewsworld.com]

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