Apple's global security head charged with bribery in gun license scheme

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What you need to know

  • Apple's global head of security has been charged with bribery.
  • The executive was bribed to donate 200 iPads to a sheriff's office in order to obtain firearms permits.

Reported by 9to5Mac, Thomas Moyer, Apple's head of global security, has been indicted as part of a concealed weapons permit scandal. The executive is being accused of bribery for providing $70,000 worth of iPads in exchange for concealed firearms licenses.

According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, Santa Clara County undersheriff Rick Sung and sheriff's Captain James Jensen withheld gun permits for Apple employees until Moyer agreed to donate 200 iPads, but the scheme was terminated at the last minute when the attorney's office executed a search warrant of the sheriff's office.

In the case of four CCW licenses withheld from Apple employees, Undersheriff Sung and Cpt. Jensen managed to extract from Thomas Moyer a promise that Apple would donate iPads to the Sheriff's Office.The promised donation of 200 iPads worth close to $70,000 was scuttled at the eleventh hour just after August 2, 2019, when Sung and Moyer learned of the search warrant that the District Attorney's Office executed at the Sheriff's Office seizing all its CCW license records.

Moyer's attorney says that the executive is "collateral damage" caught in between a dispute between the district attorney's office and the local sheriff.

Ed Swanson, Moyer's attorney said his client 'did nothing wrong and has acted with the highest integrity throughout his career. We have no doubt he will be acquitted at trial.' Swanson said Moyer was 'collateral damage' in an ongoing dispute between the sheriff and the district attorney.

In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson for Apple says that they have found no wrongdoing on Moyer's part.

"We expect all of our employees to conduct themselves with integrity. After learning of the allegations, we conducted a thorough internal investigation and found no wrongdoing."

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.