Pegatron Corp., parent company of Kaedar Electronics, suspended the division’s senior manager following criminal accusations that an Apple employee was involved in a scheme to accept money in exchange for confidential company information about the iPhone and iPod. Payments were made to the Apple employee’s own company as early as 2007, according to Bloomberg.
Despite her suspension, Pegatron executives claim the Kaedar manager wasn’t aware the money was part of a bribe. “She believed that she had paid the money for commercial purposes and not for kickbacks,” commented Pegatron finance director, Jonathan Chang.
Pegatron is currently conducting an investigation to determine whether or not the Kaedar manager thought the payments were sales agent’s commissions for product orders.
Kaedar is a mechanical parts and plastic injection moldings maker. Assuming the company did get access to confidential information about upcoming Apple designs, that could account for some of the iPod and iPhone case designs that have appeared before official product announcements.
Paul Shen Devine was accused with accepting over a million dollars in kickbacks and bribes over several years in exchange for early information about upcoming Apple products. Mr. Devine had access to the confidential information as part of his position as a mid level global supply manager for Apple.
Mr. Devine plead not guilty in U.S. Federal Court on Monday.