Former Foxconn employees charged in bribery case

Three former Foxconn employees were charged today in Taiwan with accepting bribes from supply chain partners. According to the Wall Street Journal, prosecutors detained a former general manager and released three former employees on bail. Client companies like Apple were not caught up in the arrests as they were not involved in the alleged bribery.The former employees were accused of accepting bribes from supply chain partners after an internal audit uncovered their illegal activity. Foxconn alerted the police and turned the employees over to the authorities. Though disappointing, this practice is fairly common in Asia’s electronics manufacturing industry. Competition among companies for million dollar contracts is fierce, and companies will do anything to secure an advantage over their competition. Apple was embroiled in its own kickbacks scandal in 2011, when a global supply manager was caught accepting at least $1 million in alleged bribes from suppliers. Apple-contracted Pegatron was one of the companies that allegedly paid money to secure Apple orders. Continue reading →

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