An Apple manager has been charged with taking kickbacks after he was found leaking secrets to various Asian companies. Paul Devine, 37, is also facing a civil suit from Apple themselves, who have stated “we have zero tolerance for dishonest behaviour”.
Devine was a global supply manager at Apple, where he had been working since 2005 in global distribution. Devine allegedly used his position to obtain insider secrets and pass them on to various Asian companies who were involved in the supply of iPhone and iPad accessories. The actual companies involved are as yet unknown, although they are located across Asia in South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Devine initially appeared in court on Friday charged with 23 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and accepting kickbacks, with the trial set to continue this week. Andrew Ang from Singapore was also allegedly involved alongside Devine, and has also been charged with a number of counts of conspiracy and wire fraud.
In addition to these criminal charges, Cupertino – California-based Apple, have also filed a civil suit and made a statement which has accused Paul Devine of receiving over 1 million dollars over the last few years. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said that “Apple is committed to the highest ethical standards in the way we do business”, and this civil suit goes to show they are definitely walking the walk with this case.
The details of what exactly Devine did to receive these kickbacks is still a little sketchy, although basically he used insider information to help various companies negotiate favourable deals. The suppliers in question were allegedly in a position to profit greatly from this information, and were more than happy to offer a few dollars to Mr. Devine as a thank you.
The FBI and Internal Revenue Service were both involved in the initial investigation, and the information they discovered will be ironed out over the next few weeks and months in the courts.
