Apple manager arrested in kickback scheme

HOT Apple Computers + FREE Shipping“A midlevel Apple manager was arrested Friday and accused of accepting more than $1 million in kickbacks from half a dozen Asian suppliers of iPhone and iPod accessories in a federal indictment unsealed and a separate civil suit,” Pete Carey reports for The San Jose Mercury News.

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“Paul Shin Devine, a global supply manager, and Andrew Ang, of Singapore, were named in a 23-count federal grand jury indictment for wire fraud, money laundering and kickbacks,” Carey reports. “‘Apple is committed to the highest ethical standards in the way we do business,’ Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said in a statement. ‘We have zero tolerance for dishonest behavior inside or outside the company.'”

Carey reports, “The indictment describes a scheme in which Devine used his position at Apple to obtain confidential information, which he transmitted to Apple suppliers, including Ang. In return, the suppliers and manufacturers paid Devine kickbacks, which he shared with Ang. The information enabled the suppliers to negotiate favorable contracts with Apple, according to the indictment.”

Read more in the full article here.

35 Comments

  1. “They NOTHING to do with what goes on outside the company.”

    Apple’s vendors and suppliers, idiot. And Apple has LOTS of say about how they conduct themselves.

    Whatever you do, don’t ever think before you speak. Why break a lifelong habit like that?

  2. @ Karlv

    Clearly you know *nothing* — and I do mean *NOTHING* — about international business and U.S. law. By U.S. law you are responsible for doing due diligence on both your suppliers and customers. You are also responsible for the actions of your suppliers and vendors. I bet you’ve never heard of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. I bet you know nothing about where the U.S. fined BAE $400 million this past spring for violating this Act in conjunction with its consultants and distributors which involved illegal payments and “kickbacks”.

    I bet you’ve never heard of the Anti-kickback laws the U.S. has on its books. The penalties for violating them are huge… against BOTH the individual and the company.

    I bet you’ve never heard of the Commerce Control List for the violation of which the fines can be $20 million and 10 years in jail PER VIOLATION — and if there were 10 payments/transactions, that’s 10 violations.

    Hell, for a short while certain Apple Macintosh models were on the U.S. Munitions List which has even more requirements for knowing both your vendors and customers — and in many cases your customers’ customers. (Remember the “National Security” ad Apple ran a while back?) But then, you know nothing about that, right?

    There are many, many cases where it is not only ethically correct for Apple to keep tabs on both its suppliers and customers — there are many, many laws on the books that REQUIRE Apple to do so.

    And I’ve only mentioned the U.S. laws. Most other countries have similar laws — many of them (though not all) carry penalties similar to or worse than those imposed by the U.S.

  3. @Karlv,
    You obviously don’t know my story of being fired for doing something outside of work that was accidentally discovered by my employer. It had nothing to do with my employer, I was not identified as an employee of that company, I wasn’t identified by name at all, and it wasn’t illegal, but I was still canned. Many people at this site do know the story.

  4. 1. Victimless crime. Stop wasting taxpayers’ dollars on it. Let the companies involved deal with it internally.
    2. For the government to pursue this under the appearance that this sort of thing is any different to what goes on in all levels of government all of the time is insulting.

  5. macguy

    This is NOT a victimless crime. At least a $million was taken from the value of Apple Inc. and put in the pockets of criminals. It’s equivalent to breaking into your place of business and ripping $1M out of it. The government, in the form of law enforcement agencies must pursue this crime, and others. For it is not just this case, but the principle that business ethics are legally enforceable, or else we all live in a lawless jungle.

  6. Bet this came out of Apple’s leaks investigations. And to all those that posted about US FCPA etc. dang right it’s a big deal, is pursued very diligently, & rightfully so.

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