
Ex-Apple executive jailed and fined for selling secrets - adamlvs
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30379825
======
bobjordan
This is business-as-usual for suppliers over here in China. Just yesterday I
had one supplier we were quoting send a text message to one of my lead project
engineers asking him for inside information on pricing for a quotation. In
each of the last three years, I've fired at least one employee for kickback
activity. I had one employee setup a shell company we paid $100,000 USD to it
for products with about $50,000 USD in actual market value. Now, I am learning
about the China court system, paid $15000 USD for a legal team to try to put
his head on a platter for embezzlement, just so we can show the rest of our
current and future employees in hopes they will be too scared to try this
again. Sourcing in China is hard. Now, I have 4 staff accountants running
around in a 15 person office, just to ensure enough checks and balances in
place to keep us from getting robbed. Trust is not an option.

------
WalterBright
I thought trade secrets were a civil, not a criminal, matter.

~~~
morley
The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 criminalized the misappropriation of trade
secrets:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Espionage_Act_of_1996](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Espionage_Act_of_1996)

------
gxs
>> Investigations into his behaviour started after emails were found in which
he agreed to hand over inside information in return for payment.

I'd be curious to see how exactly this occurred. The above blurb is the only
mention of it in the entire (super short) article.

I'm curious for two reasons:

1) I work for a big tech company and have a technology consulting services
company on the side. I'm curious to see how my outside emails may be
eavesdropped upon.

2) Were those emails obtained legally? I can't imagine he was using his apple
email to send the emails, does this mean they went through his personal email?
If so, was this done legally?

~~~
calvin99
From another article: According to the suit, Apple began its own internal
investigation of Devine in April, and uncovered the trove of e-mails he
purportedly sent to alleged Singaporean accomplice Andrew Ang and several
Asian companies containing confidential data and instructions on how to pay
his kickbacks. This occurred when Apple officials discovered a Microsoft
Entourage database of Devine's Hotmail and Gmail accounts "on the imaged copy
of Devine's laptop hard drive."

src: [http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/08/17/paul-shin-
devin...](http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/08/17/paul-shin-devine-apple-
manager-accused-of-1-million-kickback-scheme-heres-the-civil-suit)

Also, most employers will tell you that they can (& will) monitor any activity
done on your company issued devices (laptop, phones, anything). That seems
pretty standard.

~~~
gxs
Thanks.

------
wahsd
Greed; it gets you to the top, but it's a fickle and volatile nature can
quickly spin out of control.

------
interesting_att
Curious: Why weren't the Asian companies involved in the scheme prosecuted?

~~~
coralreef
Probably not enough evidence, plus jurisdiction issues.

------
venutip
Steal a few million from a company, go to jail.

Steal billions from the public and cause a global financial meltdown, stay
free.

~~~
huhtenberg
This ^ may sound like a banal observation, but it doesn't make it any less
true.

~~~
tartuffe78
Or any more relevant to this discussion

