Apple supply manager pleads not guilty $1M+ in kickbacks

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
A global supply manager for Apple accused of accepting more than a million dollars in kickbacks from Asian suppliers pleaded not guilty Monday in a federal court.



Paul Devine appeared in a San Jose, Calif., court on Monday with his lawyer to enter the plea, according to Reuters. The 37-year-old was arrested on Friday and is accused of sharing confidential information with Apple's suppliers to aid them in negotiations with the company.



Devine is also facing a civil suit from Apple, which alleges that he received more than $1 million bribes and payments for his assistance to six overseas suppliers. He has worked for the company since 2005.



Pegatron, the parent company of Kaedar Electronics, admitted Monday that it did pay 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.



According to The Wall Street Journal, Pegatron said Kaedar's business arrangement with Apple was introduced by the same intermediary company that accepted the commission. A spokesperson said that no money was every paid to an individual, and the incident will not affect business deals between Pegatron and Apple.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    rbonnerrbonner Posts: 635member
    Anyone know the penalty for the above?
  • Reply 2 of 9
    joe hsjoe hs Posts: 488member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rbonner View Post


    Anyone know the penalty for the above?



    Death?



    In all serious, no I have no idea..
  • Reply 3 of 9
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rbonner View Post


    Anyone know the penalty for the above?



    I would expect there to be a large range, which is no doubt why strategically its best to plead not guilty. In all likelihood, the defence will be able to pare down the number of alleged transactions before he goes to trial.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rbonner View Post


    Anyone know the penalty for the above?



    Well other articles say he was charged with wire fraud and money laundering among others. These are federal felonies and carry some pretty serious jail time. I would expect some sort of plea bargain for in exchange for giving up his contacts and cohorts.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    ihxoihxo Posts: 567member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rbonner View Post


    Anyone know the penalty for the above?



    I don't know.

    probably a few years in jail, some gigantic fine, and end of his career?
  • Reply 6 of 9
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rbonner View Post


    Anyone know the penalty for the above?



    Condemned to use Windows PC for eternity on a slow connection.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    esummersesummers Posts: 953member
    I wonder Pegatron's motivations. Did they pick it up in an audit and want to be a good citizen or did they do it so their competitors would lose their contracts for engaging in illegal activity?
  • Reply 8 of 9
    joe hsjoe hs Posts: 488member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    Condemned to use Windows PC for eternity on a slow connection.



    NOOOOOOOO!!! I'll be good I promise
  • Reply 9 of 9
    justflybobjustflybob Posts: 1,337member
    "Your honor, I plead not guilty to receiving $1,000,000 in kickbacks.

    No, really. It was more like $5,000,000 so doesn't that mean I'm innocent?"
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