Ex-Apple Manager Sentenced to Prison, $4.5 Million Fine Over Kickbacks Scheme

Paul S. Devine, a former Apple Global Operations Manager, was sentenced to a year in prison and will also need to pay a $4.5 million fine for leaking confidential information to accessory manufacturers, reports the Associated Press.

The information leak was rewarded with kickbacks. One of the companies paying money to Devine was a Pegatron subsidiary, Kaedar Electronics, which entered Apple’s supply chain as the iPod products’ packaging supplier.

The sentence was made public in San Jose last week, three years after the former Apple executive pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. The maximum penalty was 20 years, but for some reason he got only 1 year in prison.

As the Associated Press points out, companies like the aforementioned Kaedar Electronics paid kickbacks to Devine to get access to confidential information to secure favourable deals with Apple. Apple launched an internal investigation in 2010 and found a cache of emails to prove the leak.

Devine was Apple’s Global Operations manager from 2005 until his arrest in 2010.

Image credit: 9to5Mac