Former Apple global supply manager Paul Shin Devine plead not guilty Monday in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. A bail hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Devine was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on 23 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and accepting kickbacks, according to court documents obtained by C|Net.
Devine also faces the wrath of Steve Jobs; Apple has filed a civil suit against him for allegedly accepting more than $1 million in bribes from suppliers over the past few years in return for inside information that was then used to give those companies a better position in bargaining lucrative contracts.
Six Asian companies were named in the indictment including Kaedar Electronics - a division of Asus owned Pegatron (Taiwan), Singapore-based JLJ Holdings's Jin Li Mold Manufacturing, Singapore-based Glocom/Lateral Solutions and Fastening Technologies, Taiwanese company Nishoku Technology and earphone and headset maker Cresyn.
Two of the companies are doing internal investigations, while another denies any wrong doing and the other three are keeping quite - for the time being. All of the aforementioned companies supply parts for Apple's iPhones, iPods and iPads.
Taiwan-based Pegatron, owned by popular Netbook and PC maker Asus, said this week that it is conducting an internal investigation into its investigating its Kaedar Electronics division. The company has already suspended one senior manager at Kaedar over payments he made to Devine.
Singapore-based JLJ Holdings, which owns Jin Li Mold Manufacturing, also said that it is conducting an internal investigation and that Andrew Ang, who was also named in the federal indictment is one of its "former employees." Earphone and headset maker Cresyn denied that any of its employees had made payments to Devine.
