Former Apple Exec Sentenced To One Year In Prison For Wire Fraud And Money Laundering

Paul Shin Devine, a former Apple executive from Sunnyvale, California, has been sentenced to a year in prison for accepting kickbacks and leaking company secrets to vendors and suppliers. He was also ordered to repay $4.5 million as part of the sentencing in a San Jose federal court.

Devine, 41, was a global supply manager at the global tech firm from 2005 until his arrest in 2010, when he was accused of accepting kickbacks from iPhone and iPod suppliers in Asia in exchange for confidential company information, such as product forecasts, product specifications and pricing. He was responsible for choosing suppliers for iPhone and iPod headset-case materials.

Devine was indicted Friday on 23 counts of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering and other charges, court documents show. Federal agents discovered more than $150,000 in cash stored in shoe boxes when they searched Devine’s home in 2010, according to MacWorld.

Three years ago he agreed to forfeit $2.4 million in gains and pleaded to one count each of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and engaging in transactions with criminally derived property as part of an agreement with prosecutors, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. As part of the plea deal, Devine admitted to prosecutors that he participated in a scheme to defraud Apple of money, property and services.

An indictment against Devine’s co-defendant Andrew Ang is pending. Chua Kim Guan, an executive at Jin Li Mould Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, has been charged by Singaporean authorities for giving bribes to Devine.