Two former Foxconn employees have been fined and given prison terms ranging from a year to 14 months for leaking the case design for Apple's iPad 2 months before its release to the general manager of a third-party accessories supplier, according to a Thursday report by The Wall Street Journal.
Hou Pengna was sentenced to a year in prison and fined 30,000 yuan, or about $4,600, while Lin Kecheng was given 14 months in prison and fined 100,000 yuan by the Shenzhen Bao'an People's Court, according to the report. Both worked at Apple contract manufacturing partner Foxconn's Shenzhen, China plant.
In addition, Xiao Chengsong, general manager of Shenzhen MacTop Electronics, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 150,000 yuan for his role in bribing Hou to supply him with information about the iPad 2 six months before it was to be released.
Hou, Lin, and Xiao were arrested by Chinese authorities on Dec. 26, 2010 and formally charged with violating company trade secret regulations on March 23.
Xiao was found guilty of offering Hou 20,000 yuan and discounts on MacTop products to supply him with details about the iPad 2, according to the Journal. In September 2010, she turned to Lin, a Foxconn research-and-development employee, for digital images of the iPad 2's back cover.
Foxconn, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, assembles iPads, iPhones and iPods for Apple.
Images of iPad 2 cases featuring a rear-facing camera and a thinner profile than the first-generation media tablet from Apple began to surface last December. At the time, Foxconn reported its suspicions that the design had been leaked by its own employees.
The Shenzen manufacturing plant has been a source of controversy in recent years for Hon Hai Precision Industry and its high-profile partner Apple. A string of worker suicides put the spotlight on working conditions and pay rates at the plant, which houses some 420,000 employees inside the factory complex.
At least one Foxconn worker who committed suicide was reportedly distraught after being questioned by the company's security over the loss of iPhone product details.
Foxconn announced a series of pay raises last June in the wake of the suicides, including a 30-percent, across-the-board pay hike and a 66-percent performance-based raise for employees who get good marks following a three-month evaluation.
But labor rights organizations have questioned whether conditions have really improved at the company's mainland China facilities.
Last month, a deadly explosion ripped through a building at Foxconn's Chengdu plant where iPads are assembled, killing three people and injuring more than a dozen more.
Source: http://feeds.ziffdavis.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/breakingnews/~3/eUYt5HAI1TU/0,2817,2387149,00.asp
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