A former Foxconn senior manager is facing 10 years of jail time after smuggling and reselling thousands of iPhone 5 and 5S test models for a profit of almost $50 million New Taiwan dollars (approximately $2.08 million CAD).
News site Asia One, which broke the story, reports that the ex-manager, identified only by his family name — Tsai — worked in the testing department of Foxconn’s Shenzhen, China factory and instructed eight of his employees to smuggle approximately 5,700 test phones out of the space. The group then sold the phones, which were otherwise bound for the scrap heap, to stores in Shenzhen between 2013 and 2014.
The company noticed the discrepancy after an internal audit and reported its findings to authorities in Taiwan, where the company is headquartered. Tsai has now been charged with breach of trust and faces up to 10 years of jail time.
Foxconn is no stranger to scandal, contending over the years with kickback schemes, disproportionate worker suicide rates and the use of underage interns.
[source]Asia One[/source][via]Business Insider[/via]
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