Ex-Apple executive jailed and fined for selling secrets

Steal a few million from a company, go to jail.

Steal billions from the public and cause a global financial meltdown, stay free.

Wire fraud and money laundering are federal crimes, I assume conspiracy too. Illegally acquired money is a trap: you cannot spend it without running afoul of some very serious federal statutes. Thus criminals attempt to "launder" the money so it can be spent without raising red flags, but that is a federal crime itself. Catch 22.

Curious: Why weren't the Asian companies involved in the scheme prosecuted?

This is business-as-usual for suppliers over here in China. Just yesterday I had one supplier we were quoting send a text message to one of my lead project engineers asking him for inside information on pricing for a quotation. In each of the last three years, I've fired at least one employee for kickback activity. I had one employee setup a shell company we paid $100,000 USD to it for products with about $50,000 USD in actual market value. Now, I am learning about the China court system, paid $15000 USD for a legal team to try to put his head on a platter for embezzlement, just so we can show the rest of our current and future employees in hopes they will be too scared to try this again. Sourcing in China is hard. Now, I have 4 staff accountants running around in a 15 person office, just to ensure enough checks and balances in place to keep us from getting robbed. Trust is not an option.