Four U.S. men have been arrested in connection with corporate corruption and insider trading. Walter Shimoon (Flextronics), Mark Longoria (supply chain manager at AMD), Manosha Karunatilaka (Taiwan Semiconductor) and James Fleishman, have all been arrested on suspicion of leaking non-public corporate secrets to two unnamed hedge-funds in advance of their actual release date.
Of note, in a tapped phone call, Walter Shimoon was recorded speaking of "K48" to an unknown associate. This "K48" is the project that developed into the iPad.
"At Apple you can get fired for saying K48 ... outside of a, you know, outside of a meeting that doesn"t have K48 people in it. That"s how crazy they are about it," - Shimoon to associate.
Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara explains:
“Today’s 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, over the next many months and beyond, we will continue to enforce the law, police the market, and protect honest businesses and their shareholders by working methodically with the FBI and SEC to root out corporate corruption and insider trading.”
The other individuals from AMD and Taiwan Semiconductor have also been charged with leaking secrets related to AMD and Dell, respectively. These unknown hedge funds pay in excess of $1,000,000 USD for these so called "consultant" services in order to get an advanced view of the market; sometimes the money is more appealing than the morality.