Sam Oliver
Former Apple Global Supply Manager Paul Devine — Â who ran afoul of the law in 2010 for selling details of upcoming Apple products to Asian manufacturers — Â has been sentenced to one year in prison and fined $4.5 million for his role in the conspiracy.
Devine plead guilty to the crimes in 2011, but was only sentenced this week. He will begin serving his prison term — Â which will be followed by three years of supervised probation — Â on Feb. 19, 2015.
Alongside Singaporean partner Andrew Ang, Devine was charged in 2010 with 23 counts including wire fraud, kickbacks, and money laundering. Devine used his position as a senior supply chain manager to pass information about upcoming products to Apple suppliers, which used the information to gain leverage in negotiations with Apple and paid kickbacks to Devine and Ang.
At the time Devine plead guilty, he was ordered to forfeit some $2.3 million in property and money. The federal government also seized $150,000 in cash from Devine's home — Â which he reportedly stashed in shoe boxes — Â alongside nearly $1 million from various bank accounts in both his and his wife's name.
Devine received the funds into multiple bank accounts in the U.S. and South Korea, including some opened under a shell company called CPK Engineering.
A Singaporean national named Chua Kim Guan has also been charged by Singaporean courts with giving kickbacks to Devine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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51 Comments
The definitive version of hero to zero.
Not to minimize his crime, but the Wall Street bankers who caused the 2008 crash got away without as much as a slap on the wrist.
This just seems like pure greed.
The guy wasn't poor or desperate. You know that he was making good money at his job and he was a millionaire. Why risk everything that you have?
Anyway, good riddance to scumbag leakers.
All leakers of Apple info should be prosecuted, from the lowest levels to the highest.
[quote name="LordJohnWhorfin" url="/t/183786/ex-apple-supply-chain-manager-fined-sentenced-to-1-year-in-prison-for-kickback-scheme#post_2649035"]Not to minimize his crime, but the Wall Street bankers who caused the 2008 crash got away without as much as a slap on the wrist. [/quote] That's a simplistic interpretation of events. The seeds of the collapse were political in nature and were sown over a number of years by Democrats and Republicans. One doesn't get to $18 trillion in debt (as we are today in the US) acting alone.
While it's good they caught Devine, he's just a small fish. What position would someone need at a supplier where you could authorize millions in kickbacks for information and then give that information to execs to negotiate deals? Those are the ones who really need to go to prison.