Another iPad leak source pleads guilty
updated 11:00 pm EDT, Tue July 5, 2011
Shimoon pleads guilty to slipping iPad info
One-time Flextronics development head Walter Shimoon on Tuesday pled guilty to leaking iPad trade secrets and others. In return for a lighter penalty, the former executive admitted to passing along information about Apple's plans to at least Broadband Research and is believed to have sent on information to a minimum of ten other hedge funds. Shimoon will be convicted of conspiracy and securities fraud but won't learn his exact sentence until 2013.
He becomes the 13th out of 14 in a wider insider trading network that sent information about not just Apple but NVIDIA and others.
Shimoon received at least $45,000 in slipping information to analyst firms like Primary Global. With deep access to Apple's supply info, he was aware of the iPad under its K48 codename in late 2009 and even had basic details, such as it being a genuinely new product and lacking cameras. In March 2010, he also had authentic information about the iPhone 4. In both cases, the only inaccuracies were ship dates.
The hedge funds often used the information for insider trading, including on Flextronics and Apple's frequent camera supplier OmniVision. Those connected to NVIDIA often had final fiscal results hours or more before they were made public and could buy or sell before anyone else.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2008
wonder if...
the $45,000 will be worth the time in jail? Esp. since they will take that from him too. What a good! My hope is that others who profited from this will go to the clink too. This will not sound like a big deal to some, but it is just PLAIN wrong... insider information is truly insidious.