苹果公司怎么可以让这样的事情发生？
NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal prosecutors in Manhattan broadened their insider
trading crackdown Thursday, arresting four people on charges alleging that
so-called "expert consultants" revealed secrets about Apple Inc.'s iPhone
and other technology products to hedge funds seeking a trading edge on
quarterly earnings reports.
The latest probe targeted Primary Global Research, a Mountain View, Calif.-
based firm that offered consulting services to investors on industry trends,
issues and regulations. Instead, prosecutors allege, firm executive James
Fleishman used four consultants employed by publicly traded companies to
create a corrupt clearinghouse for confidential information.
Fleishman, 41, was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy. Three others, all
outside "expert consultants" for Primary Global Research until earlier this
year, were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities
fraud and wire fraud, according to papers filed in federal court in
Manhattan.
Fleishman helped arrange for Primary Global Research clients, including
hedge funds, to speak with the consultants, the papers said. The clients
were told about highly confidential Apple sales forecasts information, new
product features for the iPhone and a top-secret project known internally at
Apple as "K48," which became the iPad, launched this year, the complaint
said.
The charges allege that a "corrupt network of insiders at some of the world'
s leading technology companies served as so-called 'consultants' who sold
out their employers by stealing and then peddling their valuable inside
information," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
He said the allegations describe criminal conduct that went "well beyond any
legitimate information-sharing or good faith business practice."
Primary Global Research paid four consultants more than $400,000 merely to
participate in phone calls with their clients, "an indication of the value
placed on the information," said FBI Assistant Director Janice K. Fedarcyk.
"This wasn't market research. What the defendants did was purchase and sell
insider information," Fedarcyk said, adding: "Our investigation is most
assuredly continuing."
The three consultants charged were Mark Anthony Longoria, 44, of Round Rock,
Texas; Walter Shimoon, 39, of San Diego; and Manosha Karunatilaka, 37, of
Marlborough, Mass.
The prosecution is an offshoot of a probe of Galleon Funds founder Raj
Rajaratnam and 22 others in which prosecutors made extensive use of wiretaps
, which are more common in drug and organized crime investigations.
Rajaratnam has pleaded not guilty and said he only traded with information
available to the public.
On wiretaps used to build evidence against those arrested Thursday,
Fleishman and Longoria could be heard speaking about the Galleon probe, with
Fleishman assuring Longoria that Galleon was not a client, according to
court papers.
The complaint said Longoria responded: "OK. Good. I wasn't sure. I was, like
, really getting nervous."
Richard Choo-Beng Lee, a former hedge fund co-manager who has pleaded guilty
and is cooperating with the government, made some of the recordings, the
complaint said.
Investigators have learned from Lee that his hedge fund's "practice was to
have its employees call a firm consultant before the consultant's employer
was expected to release its quarterly earnings, in part to obtain inside
information," the complaint said.
Longoria worked at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. as a supply chain manager,
Shimoon worked at Flextronics International Limited as senior director of
business development and Karunatilaka worked as an account manager at Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. office in Burlington, Mass.
The complaint said Shimoon illegally provided information about sales
forecasts and new product features for Apple's iPhone that had been given to
employees of Flextronics, which worked with Apple on camera and charger
components for the iPhone and iPod.
It said he also spoke of the iPad project, saying on secretly recorded
conversations with a government cooperating witness: "At Apple you can get
fired for saying K48 ... outside of a meeting that doesn't have K48 people
in it. That's how crazy they are about it."
The complaint said Shimoon was also captured on wiretaps promising to get
secrets about sales at Research In Motion Ltd., which makes Blackberrys.
Shimoon has been terminated and Flextronics has clear policies prohibiting
the release of confidential information about the company and its business
partners, Flextronics said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear who would represent Shimoon at an initial court
appearance.
For Karunatilaka, bail was set at $250,000 after an initial appearance in
federal court in Boston. He was expected to be released Thursday. His lawyer
, Brad Bailey, said he was reviewing the allegations against his client and
would decide how to proceed. He said it was likely Karunatilaka would appear
in Manhattan court sometime in January.
Longoria appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew W. Austin, Texas, who
ordered him released on $50,000 unsecured bond and told him to surrender his
expired passport.
When asked if he was a flight risk, a tearful Longoria said no.
"I'm not trying to fight this. I'm here to help. I've been cooperating on
this from the beginning," Longoria said.
Longoria resigned Oct. 22 from AMD, where he had worked since 2007, said
Mike Silverman, a company spokesman.
"It appears that AMD is the victim of an insider trading scheme," Silverman
said. He added that AMD was cooperating with investigators.
A lawyers for Fleishman did not return phone calls for comment.
A fourth consultant for Primary Global Research, former Dell global supply
manager Daniel Devore, pleaded guilty Dec. 10 to wire fraud and conspiracy
charges in a cooperation deal that could win him leniency at sentencing,
prosecutors also announced. His lawyer, John Sutton, declined to comment
Thursday.
In his plea, Devore told a judge that Primary Global Research paid him about
$145,000 to share inside information with the firm's clients and employees.
"I knew that when I was misappropriating Dell's confidential information and
providing it to money managers, I was violating my duties of
confidentiality and trust to Dell," he said, according to a transcript.
David Best, a Dell spokesman, said the compa
