Apple Insider Reveals Secrets
Walter Shimoon was one of a select few who get a peek behind the veil Apple cinches tightly around its products.
His alleged attempt to profit illegally from that privilege caught up with Shimoon last week, when the former manager at Apple supplier Flextronics International was among three people arrested for supplying inside information to investors.
Shimoon, 39, was paid more than $US22,000 to share non-public sales forecasts and other information about future products, including the iPad, according to the criminal complaint.
His arrest underscores the difficulty faced by Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who runs the world’s most valuable technology company, in keeping multibillion-dollar products under wraps, said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co.
“That’s very hard to do when you have people in the supply chain who are going to get paid to supply information,” said Wolf, who is based in New York and recommends buying the stock.
As a supplier of parts for Apple’s devices, Shimoon, then a senior director at Flextronics, was privy to details about the computer maker’s product road map and sales numbers, according to the 39-page complaint unsealed last week in New York.
Shimoon, who made his first post-arrest court appearance in San Diego on Dec. 17, lost a bid for bail. Bald and dressed in a white prison jumpsuit, he neither spoke nor entered a plea. His attorney told the judge that Shimoon’s wife is eight months pregnant and is a university professor in San Diego.
Today, he was granted release on $US150,000 bail and will have to put up $US125,000 of the equity in his home as collateral.