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Former Samsung Manager Reveals Role in Leaking Apple iPad Production Data

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Apr 12, 2001
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Bloomberg reports on the recent testimony of former Samsung manager Suk-Joo Hwang, who has revealed his role in leaking secrets on volumes of iPad displays being shipped to Apple as part of an insider trading trial targeting Primary Global Research executive James Fleishman. Fleishman was one of four insiders charged last year with leaking Apple secrets through so-called "expert networks" such as Primary Global Research, which paid industry insiders to provide confidential information and then traded on and sold the information to their own clients.

Hwang, who has been granted immunity, detailed how he provided information to Fleishman on iPad display shipments in December 2009, before the product had been introduced.
Hwang said that during lunch at a restaurant in Mountain View, California, with Fleishman and a hedge fund manager he identified as "Greg," he gave them confidential information about Samsung's shipment of liquid crystal display screens it was supplying to Apple. The iPad made its U.S. debut in April 2010, four months after the lunch.

"One particular thing I remember vividly was that I talked about the shipment numbers of Apple, it was about iPad," he said. "This is in December 2009, before it came out with the tablet PC, they didn't know the name then, so I talked to them about the tablet shipment estimates in that meeting."
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Hwang notes that he immediately "freaked out" about disclosing the information, feeling that he had spoken too loudly in the restaurant and wondering whether a man at a nearby table who may have overheard the conversation was an Apple employee.

Hwang worked on the side as a consultant with Primary Global Research until August 2010, with his consulting fee having been raised from $200 an hour to $350 in February of that year after he expressed reservations about continuing to provide information following a promotion at Samsung. Hwang was fired by Samsung several months ago as the insider trading scandal unfolded.

Back in July, one of the other insiders charged in connection with the case, Flextronics executive Walter Shimoon, pleaded guilty to leaking iPhone and iPad secrets to Primary Global Research.

Article Link: Former Samsung Manager Reveals Role in Leaking Apple iPad Production Data
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/15/former-samsung-manager-reveals-role-in-leaking-apple-ipad-production-data/
It may surprise people to learn how corrupt some parts of Samsung are. They represent around 10% of South Korea's GDP last time I checked. They are a very powerful entity.
 
Who really cares... Even with all the "android copycats" and other knockoffs of Apple products, they are killing the so called competition...
 
"...spoken too loudly in the restaurant and wondering whether a man at a nearby table who may have overheard the conversation was an Apple employee."

That is scary. Those Apple employees are dangerous. Nobody in that restaurant would have been seen again. They could use Apple employees in military operations. :eek:
 
$350 a month - I can't believe it! I don't know how much that "research" firm charged hedge fonds for this kind of information but how naive was that manager? Selling his career for a little bit of petty change? And then even make it official with a "consultant" contract? Oh my goodness - that is almost pathetic - no wait - that IS pathetic. If I would ever do something like that - and I worked for companies with such kind of trade secrets - I would a) not do that over the books b) not meet anywhere near where other employees of any involved company might possibly be and c) get one huge sum in cash. The only problem: I have a too high level of integrity to even do that from the get-go. :D

Edit:
Yes, I know the text above has a flaw - it is $350 per hour not per month but in the end, it is not 40h per week, maybe 4h per month if there would be 2 meetings each month and that is unlikely. So, risk is high and pay considerably low.
 
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Can you read?

Mad-B-One said:
$350 a month - I can't believe it! I don't know how much that "research" firm charged hedge fonds for this kind of information but how naive was that manager? Selling his career for a little bit of petty change? And then even make it official with a "consultant" contract? Oh my goodness - that is almost pathetic - no wait - that IS pathetic. If I would ever do something like that - and I worked for companies with such kind of trade secrets - I would a) not do that over the books b) not meet anywhere near where other employees of any involved company might possibly be and c) get one huge sum in cash. The only problem: I have a too high level of integrity to even do that from the get-go. :D
Click to expand...

"Hwang worked on the side as a consultant with Primary Global Research until August 2010, with his consulting fee having been raised from $200 an hour to $350 in February of that year after he expressed reservations about continuing to provide information following a promotion at Samsung. Hwang was fired by Samsung several months ago as the insider trading scandal unfolded.
"
 
HiVolt said:
Who really cares... Even with all the "android copycats" and other knockoffs of Apple products, they are killing the so called competition...
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This is all about insider trading and nothing at all about competition between iOS and Android. The hedge fund manager was looking to make millions from hedging probably for Apple. Many people expected something was in the works but to have proof not only it existed, but also the expected numbers would be significant information to properly hedge the stock. Millions, if not hundreds of millions made in seconds.
 
I'm torn. Rumors are fun. Insider trading and cooperate espionage is evil. Can't have much of the former without the latter.
 
sportsfan said:
"Hwang worked on the side as a consultant with Primary Global Research until August 2010, with his consulting fee having been raised from $200 an hour to $350 in February of that year after he expressed reservations about continuing to provide information following a promotion at Samsung. Hwang was fired by Samsung several months ago as the insider trading scandal unfolded.
"
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oh okay... reading educates... :eek: but still, he does get that how often? Once a meeting, maybe for 2h per meeting? That is still not worth the risk since he is paid as "consultant." :D
 
HiVolt said:
Who really cares... Even with all the "android copycats" and other knockoffs of Apple products, they are killing the so called competition...
Click to expand...

Apple stockholders and anyone else who trades legally in Apple stock should care. Inside traders steal from them.

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Mad-B-One said:
oh okay... reading educates... :eek: but still, he does get that how often? Once a meeting, maybe for 2h per meeting? That is still not worth the risk since he is paid as "consultant." :D
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Like any consultant, he would be billing for time "worked", gathering and analyzing data; not just the time presenting information to his clients. It could be hundreds of hours a year. I assume he is not an idiot, and was charging enough to be compensated for his risks.

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kdarling said:
If you think they're badly corrupt, you've obviously never lived in New Jersey :)
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I just looked at a couple of maps-- the Korean peninsula and NJ actually look pretty similar.
 
BornAgainMac said:
"...spoken too loudly in the restaurant and wondering whether a man at a nearby table who may have overheard the conversation was an Apple employee."

That is scary. Those Apple employees are dangerous. Nobody in that restaurant would have been seen again. They could use Apple employees in military operations. :eek:
Click to expand...

And don't forget Apple security stating that they are police in the motherland... Big Brother IS watching...
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

where would macrumors be without these guys!
 
BornAgainMac said:
That is scary. Those Apple employees are dangerous. Nobody in that restaurant would have been seen again. They could use Apple employees in military operations. :eek:
Click to expand...

I can image what happens when enemies capture apple employees.
"We can't waste them, they are apple employees, if we keep them long enough and treat them nicely, perhaps they will share some secrets with us!"
 
chrmjenkins said:
It may surprise people to learn how corrupt some parts of Samsung are. They represent around 10% of South Korea's GDP last time I checked. They are a very powerful entity.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, one Apple employee has been in court quite recently for a very similar offense, receiving > $1 million from parts manufacturers for details of certain iOS devices. So this is not something where I would blame Samsung; I would blame the employee.
 
Mad-B-One said:
$350 a month - I can't believe it! I don't know how much that "research" firm charged hedge fonds for this kind of information but how naive was that manager? Selling his career for a little bit of petty change?
Click to expand...
That is a goldmine compared tot he sub $2 an hour most asian workers get. So if you think in terms of asian workers $350 a month is a lot.
 
Shouldn't insider trading awareness be required training at every publicly traded company? Do the Koreans not take it as seriously?

My employer required all employees to take courses on insider trading and business ethics.
 
chrmjenkins said:
It may surprise people to learn how corrupt some parts of Samsung are. They represent around 10% of South Korea's GDP last time I checked. They are a very powerful entity.
Click to expand...

Right. Samsung also has been trying to manipulate internet opinion. I was told they had a task force team for that. I believe some of the replies even in this forum have been posted by the tft. :mad:
 
Stock analysts -> Industrial espionage?

I wonder how many stock analysts get these kinds of insider tips. And I wonder how many of them pay more than $38,000 for such information. After all, if analyst can make one accurate prediction, their career could really take off. It's like being an actor looking for a break, or a singer looking for that first hit single.

And I wonder how many thousands of conversations like that one in Mountain View happen every day elsewhere in Silicon Valley...
 
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