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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.
But more (off-the-books) profit for the middle manager means less profit for the execs and shareholders. That kickback money could have been collected properly through higher product prices instead, and could mean more hookers and blow, jet fuel, and solid gold yacht decals for those at the top. There is more than PR to be lost here...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
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.
The difference is that in the case of Apple the premium is mostly justified.
VPS-like shared hosting, on under-crowded servers.
Agreed. While like all company apple comes with some stuff that is over priced for it quality. However most of it's products are worth the price for what you get. If you spec most systems as closely match Apples specs for a prebuilt system. And make sure you match as many of the features and materials as possible. It doesn't matter if is not a feature that you want or need. But if you
Do this you will see that Apple doesn't sell as as much of a premium as you think. In se products it may be cheaper.
Now this doesn't mean that you should by apple products if it is loaded with features you don't want to pay for. But there prices are competitive with the rest of the market.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
There was no SWAT team, and Apple did not tell anybody to raid the house.
... and then they built the supercollider.