Second Former Foxconn Executive Arrested In Taiwan For Allegedly Taking Bribes From Suppliers

Taiwanese authorities arrested a former Foxconn (TPE:2354) executive on Tuesday following an order from a local judge, making him the second ex-employee of the company to be detained over allegations of taking bribes from suppliers.

According to Huang Mou-hsin, deputy chief prosecutor of the Taipei District Prosecutors Office, the former executive can be jailed for two months and investigators can ask for a further two-month extension before filing any charges. The executive has been freed on bail, Bloomberg reported.

Foxconn, the Taipei-based manufacturer of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhones and iPads, said last week that it would cooperate with Taiwanese authorities in the probe. While Foxconn has not yet commented on the latest arrest, the company said in a Jan. 21 statement that it had discovered breaches of its code of conduct in an internal investigation, and those found guilty should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The former Foxconn executive joins three other ex-employees who were detained over bribery charges earlier in the month before being released on bail at a Jan. 22 hearing.

The allegations surfaced after Taiwanese media reported last year that Deng Zhixian, the executive in charge of Foxconn's Committee of Surface Mount Technology, had been detained in the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen for allegedly accepting bribes from suppliers. According to the reports, Deng took bribes from suppliers in exchange for buying their machines and equipment on behalf of Foxconn.

Media reports also said that one of the key suspects had allegedly netted about NT$100 million ($3.3 million) from suppliers by using his position on a procurement committee, which purchases up to NT$50 billion of equipment a year. The money was reportedly transferred into offshore accounts that belonged to dummy corporations, before being repatriated back to Taiwan.