Sam OliverSouth Korea's Cresyn said on Tuesday that it first met Paul Devine, an Apple global supply manager, in early 2006. The company was in negotiations to supply Apple, and Devine offered consulting services, according to Reuters.
An unnamed official said the company made a "legal contract" with the supply manager in 2007, through which it paid him a "small consulting fee" in exchange for "general information about U.S. markets." Cresyn supplies the ear buds that ship with Apple's line of iPods.
In addition, JLJ Holdings, owner of Jin Li Mould Manufacturing, said it was looking into the accusations of kickbacks made by Apple. The company said that a former Jin Li employee was named in the indictment, along with Devine.
On Monday, Pegatron, the parent company of Kaedar Electronics, admitted it did pay a brokerage commission to an intermediate trading company between 2005 and 2008. The incident occurred before Pegatron acquired Kaedar, which has supplied iPod packing boxes to Apple since 2005. A company spokesperson said that no money was ever paid to an individual.
Three more companies have been named in the case but have not commented: Glocom/Lateral Solutions and Fatestning Technologies of Singapore, and Nishoku Technology in Taiwan.
Devine appeared in a San Jose, Calif., court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to accusations that he shared confidential information with Apple's suppliers to give them an advantage in negotiations. He was arrested Friday and charged with 23 counts, including wire fraud, kickbacks and money laundering.
Devine also faces a civil suit from Apple, alleging that he accepted more than a million dollars in kickbacks from Asian suppliers.
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12 Comments
Going to be pretty hard to plead innocent when the suppliers are openly admitting the scum-bag was fleecing some extra $$$ to keep himself warm at night.
So is he STILL a global supply manager for Apple? Nowhere is listing him as a "former" Apple global supply manager, but it seems that Apple would have fired him before filing suit against him, right?
-360
So is he STILL a global supply manager for Apple? Nowhere is listing him as a "former" Apple global supply manager, but it seems that Apple would have fired him before filing suit against him, right?
-360
You can bet that has/will be taken care of. This is SOP. I suspect that along with the civil suit he was served with papers enjoining him from representing Apple and/or setting foot on Apple property. I am sure the suppliers have also been told he is no longer a rep. Even California employment laws cannot protect you when they document you being a thief (they have good security folks in Apple to make sure this stuff is very limited shall we say.)
Going to be pretty hard to plead innocent when the suppliers are openly admitting the scum-bag was fleecing some extra $$$ to keep himself warm at night.
You're starting to see the defense here. The customer claims that they thought it was a legal consulting agreement covering general market conditions.
That could be his defense - that he didn't share any company secrets, but only general market information. If his employment agreement doesn't have a 'no outside work' clause, it could be a plausible defense. That's not to say that he's going to win, but he doesn't need to win. Just to throw up enough mud to make Apple want to settle.
Going to be pretty hard to plead innocent when the suppliers are openly admitting the scum-bag was fleecing some extra $$$ to keep himself warm at night.
Any bozo can plead innocent (as he has) but with the case they have, and his 'consultees' giving him up, it is not going to be easy to defend. Can you say plea bargain? As far as using this for a defense it will not fly with the conflict of interest and a pattern of his 'clients' always getting his bids. It also won't take too much to get somebody to rollover with the inside info - these clients all claim it was before they were acquired by another company or by a former employee.