Former Apple Exec Gets Year In Prison For Kickback Scheme

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the sentencing of former Apple executive Paul S. Devine. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila sentenced Devine December 1.

Devine was a global supply manager at Apple from 2005 until 2010 when the company terminated him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He had access to confidential information, which he shared with Apple manufacturers and suppliers.

In turn, the suppliers and manufacturers paid Devine for the information.

The amounts of the payments were based on the size of the contracts the manufacturers and suppliers signed with Apple.

A judge sentenced Devine to 12 months and one day in prison and ordered him to pay more than $4.4 million in restitution for wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and “engaging in transactions in criminally-derived property.”

In a plea agreement, Devine admitted to engaging in a scheme to defraud his employer of money and property and also to engaging in a plan with a co-defendant to commit fraud against Apple.

Devine’s schemes allowed suppliers and manufacturers of Apple product parts to obtain more favorable contracts with the company than would have otherwise been possible, prosecutors said.

The 41-year-old Sunnyvale resident agreed that the loss attributable to his scheming was about $2.4 million. That’s equal to the amount of money he received as kickback payments from the suppliers and manufacturers of Apple parts.

Devine turned over a car and more than $1.5 million he received from the fraud schemes. Following his prison sentence, Devine will be under supervision for a period of three years.

He begins serving his sentence Feb. 19. The U.S. case against Devine’s co-defendant Andrew Ang is pending.

Authorities in Singapore have charged an executive at the Singaporean company Jin Li Mould “with corruptly giving gratifications to Devine.”

--Bay City News

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