An Apple Inc. employee was arrested Friday for pawning company secrets in exchange for more than $500,000 in kickbacks from several of Apple’s Asian suppliers, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose.
The indictment charges Sunnyvale resident Paul Shin Divine, a global supply manager for Apple, with 23 counts including wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and doing business with stolen company property.
An alleged co-conspirator, Andrew Ang, was also named in the indictment. The document claims Ang received confidential information about Apple products from Divine via e-mail and collaborated with Divine to sell the secrets to Apple’s Asian suppliers in exchange for thousands of dollars.
The information could enable suppliers to pinch Apple for more favorable contracts, the indictment said. One of the counts described an e-mail from Divine to Ang that reveals Apple’s internal price target and Divine’s recommendation that a supplier propose a higher target.
Divine was arrested Friday but will be held until Monday because he appeared in court without an attorney, said Arlette Lee, a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service who was at Divine’s court appearance.
The FBI and IRS have both been investigating the case, she said.
Divine’s next court appearance is Monday at 1:30 p.m., where he is scheduled to identify his attorney, Lee said.
