Apple’s global security chief has been charged with bribery.
Thomas Moyer is accused of offering $70,000 worth of iPads to obtain concealed firearms licences.
The charges have been brought to the California Grand Jury on Monday. Apple did not respond immediately to the request for comments.
Two police officers from Santa Clara County, California, were also charged.
County Undersheriff Rick Sung and Sheriff Captain James Jenson are accused of seeking bribes for concealed firearms licences.
Mr. Moyer is accused of offering bribes in order to get them.
Under state law, it is a crime to carry a hidden firearm without a licence to use a concealed weapon.
Santa Clara County alleges that Mr. Sung had stopped issuing hidden weapons permits to Apple’s security staff until Mr. Moyer decided to donate $70,000 worth of iPads to the sheriff’s office.
Plan has failed
The bill of indictment states that the plan was scuttled at the eleventh hour of August 2019, when Mr Sung and Mr Moyer learned of a search warrant to seize secret police licence records.
The two-year investigation concludes that Mr Sung, assisted in one instance by Mr Jensen, would hold back the issue of permits, refusing to release them until the applicants had given something of value.
If found guilty, the accused could face prison time.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, “Call this quid pro quo. Call it pay-to-play. Call it give to get It is illegal and deeply erodes public confidence in the criminal justice system,”
“When high-ranking participants of a law enforcement agency are now at the heart of a bribery scheme, it tarnishes the badge, the honour, the public image and – tragically – the effectiveness of all law enforcement agencies.”
