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Former Samsung manager testifies to leaking iPad info to hedge fund
Bloomberg is reporting that a former Samsung manager has testified to a federal jury that he leaked confidential iPad information to a hedge fund manager before the iPad was introduced in 2010. In December 2009 ex-Samsung manager Suk-Joo Hwang met with Primary Global Research LLC executive James Fleishman and revealed to him confidential shipping information about the Samsung LCD screens it was supplying for the then yet-unannounced iPad. "One particular thing I remember vividly was that I talked about the shipment numbers of Apple, it was about iPad," he told the court. "This is in December 2009, before it came out with the tablet PC, they didn't know the name then, so I talked to them about the tablet shipment estimates in that meeting." Hwang said that Fleishman was "very excited" to hear the news. He also noted that immediately after he told him he noticed someone who could have been an Apple employee was in the restaurant and apparently overheard his conversation. It's unknown whether Hwang was just paranoid or if an Apple employee did indeed happen to be in the same restaurant having lunch, but soon after the meeting Samsung lost a supply contract with Apple. Then in October 2010, Hwang was approached by the FBI. In June 2011 he was fired by Samsung. Hwang is testifying against James Fleishman, who is on trial for "two counts of conspiracy for facilitating a scheme in which employees at public companies passed confidential information to fund manager clients of Primary Global," according to Bloomberg. Hwang was granted immunity from prosecution for his part in the scheme in return for his testimony.
