Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Manager Arrested In Kickback Scheme

Posted by timothy on from the market-distortion-field dept.

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."

15 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Memo... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    You're "dogs don't shit where they eat"-ing it wrong.

    Steve

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. highest ethical standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'Apple is committed to the highest ethical standards in the way we do business,' . That's why we manufacture in China.

    1. Re:highest ethical standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      slave labor, destroying the environment, etc...

    2. Re:highest ethical standards by rotide · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe the _whole reason_ it's cheaper to do so? Because it's basically akin to slave labor? Shit doesn't get made for pennies when you have a well paid and cared for workforce but it's easy to ignore the realities of really, REALLY, sub par working conditions when you get a toy to play with after you dropped some of your disposable income, isn't it?

    3. Re:highest ethical standards by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

      The Nordic countries are passionate about unions, with something like 80% of workers belonging to one (versus 7-12% for American private sector workers), and yet their unemployment figures haven't suffered. Blaming unions is the easy thing to do, but examine the chronology and you'll find that offshoring really took off long after the American labor movement ran out of steam.

    4. Re:highest ethical standards by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's why we manufacture in China.

      You say that like it's a bad thing. People take factory jobs in China for the same reason that they take any job anywhere else in the world: it beats the alternatives. If Apple pulled out of China, that's a couple hundred thousand people out of work. If the rest of the global electronics industry did likewise, we're talking tens of millions.

      Perhaps you should take a moment to google "comparative advantage". Then, maybe you should look into how manufacturing is raising the standard of living in China, just like it did here when we went through the industrial revolution.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    5. Re:highest ethical standards by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Informative

      I have a problem with unions requiring a certain minimum salary, paid vacations, and other amenities that only serve to cost the employers money without increasing productivity.

      Again, that's what you get in the Nordic countries, and it doesn't seem to have much of an effect on employment figures.

      In fact, the first item, minimum wages, falls entirely to collective bargaining between unions and industries, at least here in Finland. There is no government-mandated minimum wage. Result? Even the most lowly of cleaners make around $10/hour, with slightly higher wages for night shifts and double pay for Sundays.

      No one forces you to join unions here, or participate in strikes. The union's got your back even if you don't want to pay dues (which are minimal), but of course you do miss out in voicing your concerns in collective bargaining if you don't join.

      The second item, paid vacations, have little to do with unions in most of the developed world because it is mandated by law. Unions might be responsible for the extra 10 days at some places around here, but almost a month of paid leave is universal across the European Union.

      Strange that you think leisure time doesn't increase employee productivity. Exhausted employees don't work as effectively as content ones.

    6. Re:highest ethical standards by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the wage front, it's fairly orthodox among modern economists to believe that a minimum wage does more harm that good to low income earnings (by making it impossible for many to get a job at all).

      That's not the experience in the UK. They introduced a minimum wage in 1999, and increased it every year. For years after, employment went up, not down. None of the claims that businesses would go bankrupt, or stop employing certain categories of workers turned out to be true.

      For sure there are problems with unemployment now because of the recession caused by the banking crisis. But that isn't caused by the minimum wage.

      If you examine executive pay for public companies, you'll see that companies usually can afford to increase the payroll. It's just that the executives get to decide which part of the payroll to increase, and big surprise, they choose to pay themselves more, rather than increase the wages of the lowest level employees. It takes minimum wage legislation or unions to deal with this problem.

  3. The Good News by bacon+volcano · · Score: 5, Informative

    Looks like a Global Supply Manager position just became available!

    http://jobs.apple.com/index.ajs?BID=1&method=mExternal.showJob&RID=58206&CurrentPage=7

  4. Apple Manager Arrested In Kickback Scheme by omar.sahal · · Score: 5, Informative

    The indictment describes a scheme in which Devine used his position at Apple to obtain confidential information, which he transmitted to Apple suppliers, including Ang. In return, the suppliers and manufacturers paid Devine kickbacks, which he shared with Ang. The information enabled the suppliers to negotiate favorable contracts with Apple, according to the indictment.

    In case you wanted to know what the scam was, and not read the article.

    1. Re:Apple Manager Arrested In Kickback Scheme by Macrat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So shouldn't he be complimented for daring to Think Different?

      Actually, it's not that different in Silicon Valley. There's an exec from Fry's Electronics going to jail for doing something similar and blowing it all in Vegas.

  5. Not with Apple by jesseck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We're talking about the organization that got the SWAT team to take back a stolen iPhone... if they can do that, the fines will probably exceed damages. I can't get an school police officer to look at me with a straight face when I tell them my daughter's Hannah Montana Disney MP3 player was taken on the playground.

    1. Re:Not with Apple by drsmithy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They are going to use their budget to go after criminals who kill lots of people or do millions in damage first.

      The average cop on the street is not involved in operations involving "criminals who kill lots of people or do millions in damage".

  6. back dated options, anyone? by haystor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'We have zero tolerance for dishonest behavior inside or outside the company.'

    *cough*
    back dated options
    *cough*

    --
    t
  7. Buying a Nokia soon? by Ilgaz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nokia is known to be obsessed with environment and living standards of their workers. They are also one of the most truly global thinking companies who cares about cultural diversity.

    Not just that, they purchased Qt from Trolltech and spend millions of engineering hours with millions of dollars to open source their key operating system. That massive work also finds its way to Linux/BSD.

    The point is, seen anyone giving a fsck lately?