A former Apple engineer is learning the hard way that you shouldn't threaten the FBI

Ex-Apple employee found guilty of threatening FBI agents | Image Credit: Quince Creative

Court records obtained by Kron4 state that Brian Broderick former Apple employee believed the company was spying on him. While on medical leave, he sent multiple threatening emails to his coworkers, as confirmed by several employees who reported the matter to the Santa Cruz police.

Broderick then contacted the FBI repeatedly in 2021 and 2022 to report multiple issues, including allegations against Apple. Apple filed a restraining order against the man in December 2021, which was granted for three years.

The Santa Cruz Police Department claimed that Broderick was paranoid and suffering from a mental health crisis. As a precaution, the SCPD obtained a gun violence restraining order against him and seized a gun from his storage locker.

When an FBI agent followed up on Broderick's reports in May 2022, he replied with "escalating and derogatory emails" to FBI San Francisco Division agents.

One email, sent in June 2022, showed Broderick claiming to be an "American who is literally hunting an idiot traitor." He warned agents that they had 24 hours to act on his allegations against Apple or "I go beyond taking your livelihood."

He later posted a video of himself surveilling an FBI office.

Broderick could face up to five years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for June 24.

In November 2022, a former parts and services buyer at Apple pleaded guilty to over $17 million in fraud against Apple. He was sentenced to serve three years in prison and pay more than $19 million in restitution.

In May 2023, the Department of Justice charged a third ex-engineer over the alleged theft of self-driving car tech in 2018, after the engineer tried to hand Apple's trade secrets over to a Chinese autonomous driving tech company.