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Apple Manager Arrested In Kickback Scheme
pickens writes "A midlevel Apple manager was arrested Friday and accused of accepting more than $1 million in kickbacks from half a dozen Asian suppliers of iPhone and iPod accessories in a federal indictment unsealed and a separate civil suit. Paul Shin Devine, a global supply manager, and Andrew Ang, of Singapore, were named in a 23-count federal grand jury indictment for wire fraud, money laundering and kickbacks. 'Apple is committed to the highest ethical standards in the way we do business,' Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said in a statement. 'We have zero tolerance for dishonest behavior inside or outside the company.' The alleged scheme used an elaborate chain of US and foreign bank accounts and one front company to receive payments, the indictment said, and code words like 'sample' were used to refer to the payments so that Apple co-workers wouldn't become suspicious."
I have a feeling Apple only cares because at some point in the past someone was going to find out about the deal and Apple simply didn't want the negative publicity. If it was going to stay a "don't ask, don't tell" "secret", we wouldn't be commenting on this story right now. Lets face it, more profit is a good thing for all Apple employees and shareholders. Lets also face the fact that most businesses would probably do the same damn thing.
it's easy to ignore the realities of really, REALLY, sub par working conditions
What's par?
Is it the American standard where working 40 hours in an air-conditioned building, getting paid extra for overtime, and making a minimum of $15,000 a year is barely acceptable?
Or is it the African standard where walking 2 miles to work 100 hours a week sewing clothes in a shack, and making $480 a year is a good job?
In a world with cheap & easy transportation, jobs get outsourced to places where people are willing to work cheaper. If that means they don't get central air conditioning or hourly safety inspections, too bad. Yeah, it's sad that someone might lose a hand or get sick, but until then, they have a job. After that, they have to try and get a different job, doing something that doesn't require a hand. It's callous, but it's true.
If Americans were willing to work cheaper (and were actually allowed to), we might get some jobs coming back. Instead, we get labor unions that argue for high wages and benefits at the cost of actual jobs. Employment should be an agreement exchanging work for pay. In my opinion, all details of that agreement should be negotiable on an individual basis.
</rant>
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
We're talking about the organization that got the SWAT team to take back a stolen iPhone...
Except that never actually happened. It was just another invention of the intarweb disinformationists.
... and then they built the supercollider.
There was no SWAT team, and Apple did not tell anybody to raid the house.
... and then they built the supercollider.