Apple Security Boss Charged With Bribery

The head of security at Apple has been charged by US prosecutors over a bizarre scheme involving guns and iPads.

Apple Chief Security Officer Thomas Moyer, aged 50, along with two officers in the Sheriff’s Office have been charged with bribery.

According to Reuters, the charges stem from Moyer promising a donation of 200 iPads to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office to secure four concealed-weapon permits for Apple employees.

Bribery charges

And now the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has announced that a grand jury indicted Apple’s Moyer, along with the two officers, named as County Undersheriff Rick Sung and Sheriff’s Captain James Jenson.

The officers were reportedly charged with soliciting bribes for issuing concealed carry permits.

In California, citizens cannot carry a concealed firearm with the relevant permit. County sheriffs reportedly have broad discretion over their issuance.

“Undersheriff Sung and Captain Jensen treated CCW licenses as commodities and found willing buyers, DA Jeff Rosen announced in a statement. “Bribe seekers should be reported to the District Attorney’s Office, not rewarded with compliance.”

The two-year investigation by the District Attorney’s Office revealed that Undersheriff Sung, aided by Captain Jensen in one instance, held up the issuance of CCW licenses, refusing to release them until the applicants gave something of value.

“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,” said the US prosecutors.

“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,” they added.

Apple investigation

Moyer’s lawyer meanwhile said he was innocent of the charges.

Apple said it had conducted its own investigation and found no wrongdoing.

Moyer’s attorney, Ed Swanson, told Reuters that Moyer had applied for weapons permits for some Apple security personnel to protect executives and employees after shootings at other Silicon Valley tech firms, such as a 2018 incident at YouTube’s headquarters.

“They went through the process the way you’re supposed to do it,” Swanson reported said of the permit applications, adding that the iPad donation was unconnected to the permits. “There was no bribe, no quid pro quo.”

The defendants will be arraigned on 11 January, 2021.

If convicted, the defendants could receive prison time.