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Foxconn Employee Faces 10-Year Prison Sentence For Stealing 5,700 iPhones Worth $1.5 Million (thenextweb.com)
A Taiwanese Foxconn manager faces a stiff prison sentence after he stole 5,700 iPhones from his employer, and went to sell them for $1.56 million. The Next Web reports: Foxconn is a tech manufacturing giant. It makes a lot of things, including laptops for HP, phones for Apple, games consoles for Sony, and its workers so depressed it has to install suicide nets. The Taiwanese manager at the center of this crime -- known only by his family name, Tsai -- worked in the testing department at Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, mainland China. According to Taiwanese prosecutors, Tsai ordered eight of his subordinates to smuggle out thousands of iPhones which were used by the company for testing and quality assurance purposes. These were destined to be scrapped after use. The stolen iPhones (mostly iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s models) made their way to stores in Shenzhen, and went on to make Tsai and his accomplices nearly $1.56 million USD (Tw$50 million). Tsai has since been charged with breach of trust and, if found guilty, he faces a maximum 10-year jail term.
For stealing what amounts to be trash!
The retail price might be $1.5 million but I wouldn't say that they would be worth it.
Doesn't seem like he was hurting anyone. It's poor business ethics but when was the last time someone was sentenced to 10 years for business ethics?
He probably believed he owned the product of his labor.
ohp ohp ohp ohp prison gangnam style....
No fuss, no muss.
This is FOXXCONN, Just remove the safety nets at his end of the building and he will carry out the sentence himself.
Lets face it. I doubt even a test lab Manager can earn $1.5M within 10 years of salary out there.
So 10 Years in prison can be a very bad unpleasant occupation but, for $1.5M it pays decently.
Léa Gris
Now you know where the spare parts are coming from.
Especially, the spare parts that are not officially available.
That was fake news. The suicide rate at Foxconn was lower than that of the U.S. at the time of the spike in suicides. The Foxconn suicide myth spread and persists for the same reason other fake news spreads and persists - the people spreading it want to believe it's true, and thus pass it on without first vetting it with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Except in this case the people spreading it are journalists in the mainstream media, whose job it is to review these stories with a critical eye before publishing them. They want to believe factory workers in developing nations were being exploited by western corporations and thus were more prone to attempt suicide, so they recklessly published these stories perpetuating the myth, and still do. Foxconn installed the nets to try to make the Western media shut up, not because there was a greater suicide problem there than anywhere else. I have no love for Apple or Chinese assembly line labor, but this is one criticism they don't deserve.
Might be to get the money back from the individuals and pay it into employee health care and other benefits along with an equal donation from Apple and Foxconn. What does Apple and Foxconn expect other than creating theft and other social problems in their factories of an essentially tech slave labor work force. All I see is a future of discontent with the greed and exploitation in these so called HIGH TECH puppy mill organizations of the orient that could care less about their work force!
You're a couple of decades too late. The 1980s already had it.
And to be honest, I could probably make a case for various other stories even further back in time.
The Mann Act, for example, was passed in the face of hysteria over the White Slave Trade.
That's right, Solandri, you don't go too far enough.
Corporate stooge: "We no longer want this item, so please add the plastic to the ocean!"
Opportunist Environmentalist: "But sir its a perfectly working device, surely we can sell it!"
Corporate stooge: "And tarnish our american overlords brand by selling a *USED* iphone! please go die now!"
Opportunist Environmentalist: "okay..."
Corporate stooge: "Now if you'll excuse me I have to switch over the lines to make pirated iphone parts so i can buy up property all over the world and make housing unaffordable for locals!"
*employer leaves room and opportunist pockets device*
Its not stealing if its trash. But this is capitalist china, so 10 years in jail for violating corporate rules (and not affording the requisite bribes) seems accurate.
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
if they were going to throw the phones away anyhow. Good for him.
So the guy made $1.56 million on the phones, and the longest jail sentence he can get is 10 years. That works out to an annual salary of at least $150,000, assuming he was smart enough to put the money somewhere safe.
Not a bad wage.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
>Taiwanese manager at the center of this crime
A big surprise, a Taiwanese guy...
Back in ifone 3g era, most stolen phones were coming from local staff/managers.
A funny fact - this once was the reason Apple began demanding oems to physically destroy all devices that do not pasd QA/QC as they all were getting to the streets.
You're about a century too late.
Yellow journalism isn't a new thing.
$1.5M/5.7K=$263 ... I'd like to see such a retail price.
Bullshit. Google to actually SEE the nets.
Foxconn installed the nets to try to make the Western media shut up, not because there was a greater suicide problem there than anywhere else.
And since that did not work, they've moved on to a new tactic - robots! Since the iphone 6 was released, Foxconn has replaced more than half of their labor force with robots (employment went from 110,000 to 50,000). That's more than a 50% reduction in suicides!
BINGO, seems like a shut & closed case. Items scheduled to be destroyed, and someone rescues them & sells them.
I wonder if he had only taken ten and handed them out for persons use?
Either way I have seen how the accounting side works and have this tale to tell.
TL;DR: No one shall benefit after the accountants have stricken items from inventory. If the company can't benefit, no one shall.
OFFICE RECYCLING
In our building we have a bunch of inventory being replaced. Such things as older monitors, (square instead of landscape), outdated PDA's (Palm, Pilots), and yes even coffee makers & video cards.
Now these items work very well. They are not broken. Despite being tossed haphazardly into boxes, these items are not considered abandoned or trash even though they look like it to passers by. They are accounted for all they way up to their fate. What is that fate? -->
--> They must be donated to organizations, recycled, or destroyed for various budgeting & tax reasons. They can't be re-sold or re-purposed to any benefit of the company or individuals. Not even to individuals who want to rescue an old video card, and especially not people who will make lots of money off of this stricken inventory. --
It is THAT kind of budgeting/fiscal policy that demands that all items stricken from inventory be truly followed through with the plan, (donate, recycle, destroy). And woe be to those that dive into the bin to collect such perfectly working gems as these. Such an act apparently brands one as a thief by legal definition- because interfering with an item's destiny reverses the company's accounting processes and puts their financial reputation at risk. Even if you're not selling it on eBay, merely taking it home to add to one's collection of gadgets.
So there you go!!! I would not have believed it myself, but apparently finding a new home for a pair of yesteryear monitors is an affront to bean-counters everywhere. No one shall benefit after they have rubber stamped an inventory.
_