Singapore’s JLJ executive chairman steps down amid Apple kickback suit

“Singapore’s JLJ Holdings Ltd., the parent of a supplier of components to Apple Inc., said Thursday its executive chairman Chua Kim Guan has voluntarily stepped down,” Gaurav Raghuvanshi reports for Dow Jones. “‘In order to facilitate the impartial review of all activities relating to the Apple claim that may involve the company and its subsidiaries, the company’s executive chairman has voluntarily relinquished all executive duties…for the time being,’ JLJ said in a statement.”

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“JLJ said Chua is the brother in law of Andrew Ang, a former assistant general manager of its Jin Li Mould Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. unit. Ang, who left Jin Li in May 2009, was named in an lawsuit by Apple along with Paul Shin Devine, a global supply manager at Apple, who was charged in a federal grand-jury indictment in the U.S. on Friday for allegedly receiving at least $1 million in kickbacks from six suppliers in Asia in return for confidential information that would help them negotiate favorable contracts with the Cupertino, Calif., company,” Raghuvanshi reports. “Devine pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court in San Jose, Calif.”

Raghuvanshi reports, “The announcement comes after Taiwan-based Pegatron Corp. said Wednesday it had suspended a manager who has been accused of paying kickbacks to an Apple employee, and it is now investigating whether the manager violated the company’s code of conduct. Pegatron is the parent company of Kaedar Electronics Co., which was among the six firms Devine allegedly favored.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]