The chairman of Singapore-based JLJ Holdings, the parent company of Jin Li Mould Co., is stepping down, at least for the time being, as his company investigates the kickback scheme involving Apple supplier contracts and an Apple manager. While a now ex-Apple employee is at the heart of the alleged scheme, his alleged coconspirator, Andrew Ang, was an executive at Jin Li, an executive who just happens to be JLJ Holdings’s CEO’s brother-in-law.
“Andrew Ang is the brother-in-law of the company’s executive chairman. In order to facilitate the impartial review of all activities relating to the Apple claim that may involve the Company and its subsidiaries, the company’s executive chairman has also voluntarily relinquished all executive duties,” the firm said in a statement to Reuters.
Said executive chairman was not named in the statement, but Reuters noted that JLJ’s Web site does identify its top boss, one Chua Kim Guan. Whether or not Mr. Guan’s stepping down is permanent remains to be seen.
The story of Paul Shen Devine’s arrest over the scheme broke over the weekend, with Apple claiming that he accepted more than one million dollars over the course of the last few years in exchange for providing advanced product information that Apple’s suppliers then used to in contract negotiations.
Further details then broke as to the exact details of the financial side of the deal through cached e-mail files found on Mr. Devine’s Apple-supplied laptop. Those details includes a spreadsheet he kept with kickback payments and the share in those payments that then went to Mr. Ang, the chairman’s brother-in-law.