Prosecutors have found $150,000 resting peacefully inside shoe boxes at the home of Paul Devine, the Apple manager accused of taking some $1m in kickbacks from various parts suppliers in Asia. While that certainly sounds sinister, maybe the man simply doesn’t trust banks?
You’ll recall that Devine was charged last week with 32 counts of crimes such as wire fraud, money laundering, and money transactions in criminally deprived property.
Devine, formerly of Apple’s iPod and accessories procurement operations department, is alleged, by Apple, to have, in effect, sold company secrets to various suppliers in Asia. Since Devine had access to sensitive Apple information, including pricing strategies and predicted component requirements, he was able to sell this information. Then the parts suppliers would have a leg-up on Apple when it came time for negotiations.
All of that came out about a week ago.
With prosecutors now working the case, his home was searched, where they found the $150,000 hiding inside shoe boxes. That probably wasn’t the smartest of moves, no. He could have at least hid the money somewhere creative—think The French Connection and where the French guys hide those drugs. But shoe boxes?
I digress.
Prosecutors have also raided overseas bank accounts.
Devine hasn’t been found guilty of any wrongdoing just yet, but you’d have to assume that none of this will be helpful in his defense.