IC resale scandal rocks AMD, Seagate, ST

[kenc51]

taken from here

SINGAPORE — Former employees from 3M, Advanced Micro Devices, Seagate and STMicroelectronics were jailed on Wednesday (Sept. 28) over an alleged chip resale scandal involving Singapore’s Citiraya Industries, an electronics waste recycling specialist, according to The Business Times on Thursday (Sept. 29).
The former chip and disk-drive employees pleaded guilty in taking bribes from executives of Citiraya, the report said. In return for the bribes, the individuals allegedly resold chips in the open market that were meant for destruction at Citiraya, according to the reports.

In total, 11 people have been charged in the Citiraya scandal, including company CEO Ng Teck Lee and his brother Ng Tech Boon.

Ng Teck Boon faces 193 charges of falsifying accounts and bribery. Ng Tech Lee fled Singapore and his whereabouts are unknown.

Four men were sentenced this week by District Judge Wong Keen Onn at the Subordinate Court. Johnny Seow Teck, a former senior planner of inventory at Advanced Micro Devices Inc., was sentenced to three years and three months in jail and was fined, according to the report.

In return for accepting bribes, Seow ensured that microprocessors from AMD were not all destroyed and then resold in the market, according to reports.

Francis Wong Chin, a former sales executive of STMicroelectronics Inc., was sentenced to 13 months in jail and a fine. He accepted bribes and ensured that STMicro’s chips were not crushed, the reports said.

Chang Kar Yang, a former surplus asset manager with Seagate Technology, was sentenced to four weeks in jail and issued a fine. He allegedly took bribes and helped secure contracts with Citiraya.

Bobby Teh Ah Bah, a former senior warehouse assistance with 3M Corp., was sentenced to 30 weeks in jail and was handed a fine. He accepted bribes for overlooking the supervision of the precious metal analysis carried out by Citiraya, the report said.

Two other individuals were also charged.

WOW!!!
I was going to post this on the main page as news... but since it's a legal matter, I tought better not...
I'm amazed that this even goes on!

[killswitch83]

Sounds all too familiar to me though; I know it isn't on the same scale as this current situation, but I know when I worked at Best Buy, I knew of a lot of people giving employee discounts to customers that weren't immediate family, or even related to them for that matter. Also, I knew of computer techs working there who did computer work on the side and built systems, something you weren't supposed to do due to conflict of interests (and the former of the two situations can also be considered a conflict of interest and, to an extent, stealing from the company). But this here takes the cake, as it's an unethical business practice to resell defects that are to be destroyed, much less be it by former employees of these companies. I'm glad the people who got jail time got it, and I hope the guy that's still on the loose is caught as well, because sometimes the actions of a few can tarnish the image of an entire corporation or company.

[Bal`thzar]

though selling IC's marked for destruction is definately not the right thing to do I believe its a far cry from a Best Buy employee doing work on the side. Considering that most major corperations have only thier own interest in mind and couldn't care less about their employees, especially retail outfits.

the guys shipping out defective chips get what they deserve

those doing work on the side while working retail (shoud do more work on the side :D )

[killswitch83]

Exactly, and I did too, lol. I built systems, fixed ailing systems, configured home networks, and got parts for customers from respectable online vendors at sometimes a quarter of Best Buy's price, and make a killing off my labor in addition to my paycheck. But, personally, considering how right now I'm working in the manufacturing field, I would go back if I could, because I thoroughly enjoy working on computers, and wish I could do it more as of late, due to my having to work 40 hours a week to keep myself afloat. Once I graduate from college in the fall next year all that shall change, one way or another.

[Yuriman]

I wonder, could AMD not speedbin these chips down to 2000+'s, or less? I'm sure a good percentage of the non-working chips DO work at some speed or another, and this would make buying a computer a much easier for many people in the world.

[killswitch83]

You would think, but with some implementations of Total Quality Management (TQM) at electronics plant, defects must be scrapped and recorded, then recycled. This might be the case at AMD, but the chips got intercepted and sold, as we saw here, with major implications. I don't think binning in that manner is legal, but I could be wrong. If I am, then those who bought the faulty chips are wrong (they're wrong anyway, but to what extent is to be seen depending on this) and should be fined and imprisoned for improper business practices, just like those who are imprisoned for SEC fraud.

[Cyberdyne]

I worked at Best Buy as a tech for almost 2 years while I was in high school and customers would ask us all the time If we could help them out with certain things. Our supervisor didn’t have a problem with us doing work on the side if it was a service Best Buy didn’t offer. However there always were guys who would disregard that.

But that still is a completely different situation than the one going on in this article. Not only were they stealing from the manufacturers but they were cheating customers to, because the parts being sold were probably faulty in the first place. Seems like they were let off a little easy imho

[killswitch83]

yeah that's what I meant, but I also did a couple of services that Best Buy offered, but only because it was like my neighbor or someone I used to go to church with, you know, that sort of thing. like I said above, this is a fraud issue, as well as larceny when you think about it, so they may get some years yet.