Apple's head of global security charged with bribery

Brendan Morrow
·2 min read

Apple's head of global security has been indicted after allegedly offering law enforcement officials iPads as bribes in exchange for concealed firearms licenses.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's office on Monday said a grand jury has charged Apple Chief Security Officer Thomas Moyer with bribery. Santa Clara County Undersheriff Rick Sung and Captain James Jensen were also charged. Sung allegedly "held up the issuance of [concealed firearms] licenses, refusing to release them until the applicants gave something of value," while being "aided by Captain Jensen in one instance."

In Moyer's case, four concealed firearms licenses had been "withheld from Apple employees," and he allegedly promised Apple would donate 200 iPads "worth close to $70,000" to the Sheriff's Office in exchange for the licenses. This plan was "scuttled at the eleventh hour" after Moyer and Sung found out about a search warrant for the license records, the District Attorney's office said. A local business owner was also charged for allegedly offering tickets to a hockey game in exchange for a concealed firearms license.

"Undersheriff Sung and Captain Jensen treated CCW licenses as commodities and found willing buyers," Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. "Bribe seekers should be reported to the District Attorney's Office, not rewarded with compliance."

Moyer's attorney told The Washington Post he "did nothing wrong," saying his arrangement to donate iPads to an education center for the sheriff's office wasn't connected with the permit requests. The attorney added, "We have no doubt he will be acquitted at trial." An Apple spokesperson also said in a statement, "We expect all of our employees to conduct themselves with integrity. After learning of the allegations, we conducted a thorough internal investigation and found no wrongdoing."

More stories from theweek.com
The Secret Service is reportedly preparing for Trump's 'post-presidency life'
Biden is stealing the spotlight. Trump can't stand it.
The airline industry begins to plan COVID-19 'vaccination passports' for international travel

Latest Stories

  • 'Close the bars' and open schools, Fauci says

    Evidence strongly indicates that schools are not the sites of significant viral transmission, leading some to wonder why schools are being forced to bear the pandemic’s brunt, when it is adults in adult spaces who seem to be spreading the virus. 

  • Computer repairman who claimed he gave Hunter Biden data to Giuliani closes shop as laptop saga gets stranger

    Computer repairman John Paul Mac Isaac, who gave a copy of the laptop to Rudy Giuliani, shuttered his Delaware store and a neighbor said he left town.

  • Rush Limbaugh: Trump’s Legal Team ‘Promised Blockbuster Stuff and Then Nothing Happened’

    Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Monday criticized President Trump’s legal team over their chaotic press conference last week that failed to provide any evidence to back up their claims that the 2020 election was rigged.“You call a gigantic press conference like that — one that lasts an hour — and you announce massive bombshells, then you better have some bombshells,” Limbaugh said during his show on Monday. “There better be something at that press conference other than what we got…I talked to so many people who were blown away by it, by the very nature of the press conference. They promised blockbuster stuff and then nothing happened, and that’s just, it’s not good.”He added, “If you’re gonna do a press conference like that with the promise of blockbusters, then there has to be something more than what that press conference delivered.”He also questioned the role of lawyer Sidney Powell, who was present at the press conference but has since cut ties with Trump’s legal team.Though Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said Powell is “not a member of the Trump legal team” or a personal lawyer to the president, Limbaugh argued it’s a “tough thing to deny she was ever part of it because they introduced her as part of it."“She was at that press conference last week,” he said.During the press conference on Thursday, Giuliani claimed to have evidence of a "national conspiracy" to steal the election for President-elect Joe Biden, though he said he could not yet release any evidence as the judges presiding over the campaign's lawsuit might object and because his witnesses might face retribution if their names became public. He said he had “at least ten” witnesses ready to describe instances of voter fraud, he couldn’t reveal them publicly because “they don’t want to be harassed.”

  • NYC sheriffs broke up a sex party with 80 people, a room full of mattresses, and boxes of condoms

    The dozens of attendees were all mask-less at Caligula, an illegal sex club, violating New York state COVID-19 regulations.

  • Reports: Israeli PM flew to Saudi Arabia, met crown prince

    Israeli media reported Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia for a clandestine meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which would mark the first known encounter between senior Israeli and Saudi officials. The reported meeting was the latest move by the Trump Administration to promote normalized ties between Israel and the broader Arab world and reflected the shared concern of all three nations about Iran. The Israeli news site Walla, followed quickly by other Hebrew-language media, cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that Netanyahu and Yossi Cohen, head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, flew Sunday night to the Saudi city of Neom, where they met with the crown prince.

  • Latest North Korean defector reported to be a gymnast who jumped border fence

    In the annals of great escapes, vaulting the barbed wire, heavily-surveilled fence that separates the mined no-man’s land between North and South Korea would surely feature strongly. According to the South Korean media this week, a defector who evaded security in one of the most dangerous border crossings of the world on November 3 was a former gymnast who managed to swing himself over the imposing barricades, reportedly without triggering key sensors. The authorities vowed to investigate why high-tech security systems did not work. “We will look into why the sensors did not ring and make sure they operate properly,” an official told Yonhap news agency. The man, reported to be wearing blue civilian clothes and in his twenties, later surrendered after a manhunt by the South Korean military units who discovered a breach of the fence. He was detained without incident just under a mile south of the fence and has asked for asylum.

  • Clever’s 2020 Gift Guide Is Here and It Just Wants You to Have a Nice Time

    We rounded up a mix of gifts that help others, keep folks healthy, and add a little something-something to the home Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Georgia election official: We've 'crossed a tipping point' where many Republicans' distrust of system will suppress vote

    President Trump’s efforts to undermine the results of the November election in Georgia will “absolutely” hurt Republicans in two U.S. Senate runoff races there, an election official in the state said Monday. “We’ve crossed a tipping point where ... there may be some Republicans who don’t trust the outcomes of the system at all, and say, ‘Why bother to vote,’” Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, told Yahoo News.

  • Why a watchdog group is troubled by Biden's secretary of state pick

    President-elect Joe Biden's pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, "was known for his unimpeachable ethics," according to The American Prospect's prior report. That may be true, but how he's spent his time since the end of the Obama administration has left some critics bristling at his selection.In a July report, TAP put a spotlight on the strategic consultancy firm WestExec Advisers, of which Blinken and Michele Fourney, the favorite to lead the Pentagon in the Biden administration, were founding partners. The firm has ties to an array of industries, including: tech, financial services, aerospace, defense, and pharmaceuticals. But it's not exactly clear who the individual clients are since the firm, which is not registered to lobby, doesn't have to disclose them. The lack of transparency is a cause for concern among some observers, who are worried about people in the Biden, or any, administration getting too wrapped up in the interests of global corporations, TAP reported.Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, told The New York Times that "those kinds of consulting shops," like WestExec, "take advantage of current laws, so there is no transparency in their clients and how they are trying to influence public policy for them. That's exactly the kind of people who should not be in an administration."There likely will be some clarity, however, since Blinken, as a political appointee, will have to disclose clients who paid $5,000 or more for his services in the past year. Read more about WestExec Advisers at The American Prospect. > Federal political appointees are required to disclose clients who paid $5k or more for their services in the past year. So Blinken's financial disclosure will be a rare glimpse into this sort of consultancy's clientele https://t.co/QqfICsYpx4> > -- Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) November 23, 2020More stories from theweek.com The Secret Service is reportedly preparing for Trump's 'post-presidency life' Biden is stealing the spotlight. Trump can't stand it. The airline industry begins to plan COVID-19 'vaccination passports' for international travel

  • U.S. Navy rear admiral makes unannounced visit to Taiwan: sources

    A two star Navy admiral overseeing U.S. military intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region has made an unannounced visit to Taiwan, two sources told Reuters on Sunday, in a high-level trip that could vex China. The sources, who include a Taiwanese official familiar with the situation, said the official was Rear Admiral Michael Studeman. According to the Navy's website, Studeman is director of the J2, which oversees intelligence, at the U.S. military's Indo-Pacific Command.

  • Melania welcomes White House tree after being caught on tape saying ‘who gives a f***’ about Christmas

    Decorating mansion will be her final official act as first lady

  • How Democrats came up short in bid to expand House majority

    This swath of southeast Iowa isn't supposed to be a nailbiter for Democrats. For more than a decade, voters in the college town of Iowa City powered Democratic candidates to Congress. Nearly three weeks after Election Day, a winner hasn't been declared in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District.

  • Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Encourages Residents to Call Police on Neighbors Violating COVID Rules

    Oregon Governor Kate Brown is encouraging residents to call the police on any neighbors who flout state COVID-19 restrictions, which include limiting in-home gatherings to a maximum of six people.“This is no different than what happens if there's a party down the street and it's keeping everyone awake,” Brown said in an interview Friday. “What do neighbors do [in that case]? They call law enforcement because it's too noisy. This is just like that. It's like a violation of a noise ordinance.”Last week the Democratic governor instituted a new round of restrictions aimed at mitigating the spread of coronavirus in the state via executive order, including a two-week “freeze” limiting indoor and outdoor gatherings to no more than six people from no more than two households just ahead of Thanksgiving. Residents are also prohibited from eating out at restaurants and going to the gym, though faith-based gatherings of up to 25 people indoors and 50 people outdoors are allowed.Violators can face up to 30 days in jail, $1,250 fines or both. The Marion County Sheriff’s office said in a statement on Friday that it believes “we cannot arrest or enforce our way out of the pandemic.”“We believe both are counterproductive to public health goals.”Brown pushed back, calling criticisms of the new restrictions "irresponsible."“This is about saving lives and it's about protecting our fellow Oregonians,” she said. “We have too many sporadic cases in Oregon. We can't trace these cases to a particular source. We have to limit gatherings and social interactions.”On Sunday, new COVID-19 cases reached a record high in the state for the third straight day, with 1,517 new infections recorded, bringing the state total to 65,170.

  • Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon get why Trump's legal team couldn't steal Biden's presidency

    "The president's slow-moving coup is not going that well," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. "This afternoon, the Michigan election board certified Joe Biden's win in that state, then tonight we just learned moments ago that the General Services Administration informed President-elect Joe Biden the administration is ready to begin the formal transition process." That makes it official, he said. "Our next commander in chief will be President Biden. Which means somewhere, right now, Rudy Giuliani is filing a last-ditch legal claim that our current president's name has always been Joe Biden.""With so many people humiliated by the absolute incompetence of his legal team, the president did what had to be done and fired someone named Sidney Powell," Colbert said. "If you don't know who she is, congratulations, now you don't have to know. But I'm going to tell you anyway." And he did.Powell "got kicked off Trump's legal team for being too crazy," Jimmy Fallon marveled at The Tonight show. "That's like getting kicked off of Real Housewives for being too crazy. Seriously, you know how nuts you have to be when Rudy Giuliani's head starts leaking and you're the one who gets fired?""Here's how big of an embarrassment she was to the Trump team," James Corden elaborated at The Late Late Show: "The guy who held a press conference next to a sex shop, and last week had hair dye running down his face, and who wears loafers that look like clown shoes -- that guy, still on the team. But I saw this coming, I did. Any good conspiracy theorist will tell you if you rearrange the letters in Sidney Powell, you get Needy Pillows, which is obviously nod to the MyPillow CEO, who invented coronavirus to destabilize the neck-support industry. I gotta be honest, I spent a lot of time on the internet this weekend.""Trump is concerned that his legal team is made up of fools that are making him look bad," Jimmy Kimmel laughed at Kimmel Live. "They said the same thing about you." Meanwhile, "we still haven't seen the president concede -- we've barely even seen the president," thanks largely to golf, he shrugged. "I've never seen a guy try so hard to keep a job he doesn't even do." Watch another one of Kimmel's "great ideas" to get Trump to leave office below. More stories from theweek.com The Secret Service is reportedly preparing for Trump's 'post-presidency life' Biden is stealing the spotlight. Trump can't stand it. The airline industry begins to plan COVID-19 'vaccination passports' for international travel

  • Japan and China agree to restart business travel, coordinate on East China Sea

    Japan and China agreed on Tuesday to restart coronavirus-hit business travel this month and to continue talks on disputed isles in the East China Sea, in the first high-level dialogue since Japan picked a new leader in September. The two-day visit to Tokyo by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi comes amid growing concerns over Beijing's assertiveness in the region. Talks with Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi covered maritime tensions, trade and the pandemic response.

  • Election mail: We sent 193 shipments, and here's what we learned

    Nearly 200 mailings found delivery times of up to two weeks. Those delays could have affected election, as COVID-19 led to millions of mailed ballots

  • Trump says he ‘will never concede’ and transition process has nothing to do with election result

    ‘Will never concede to fake ballots & “Dominion”’, writes president, a reference to a brand of voting machines

  • Kurdish and Turkey-backed fighters clash in Syria, 11 killed

    Clashes between Kurdish fighters and Turkey-backed opposition gunmen in northern Syria left at least 11 fighters dead in some of the most intense fighting in weeks between the two sides, an opposition war monitor and a Kurdish spokesman said Tuesday. Exchange of fire and shelling between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkey-backed opposition gunmen who identify as the Syrian National Army have not been uncommon since Turkish troops invaded parts of northern Syria in October of last year. The Monday night clashes near the town of Ein Issa were triggered by an attack by Turkey-backed gunmen on SDF positions, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor.

  • Alleged mafia members 'Joey Electric,' 'Tony Meatballs,' 13 others indicted

    Conspiracy, illegal gambling, loansharking and drug trafficking among charges unsealed, U.S. attorney says.

  • Turkey, Russia at odds over Turkish military post in Azerbaijan - source

    Turkey and Russia are at odds over Ankara's wish to set up an independent military observation post on Azeri territory, a Turkish source said, after the two agreed this month to monitor a ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Turkey and Russia have already agreed to set up a joint centre in the region to monitor the Nov. 10 ceasefire, which ended weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan's troops and ethnic Armenian forces in the enclave. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but is populated by ethnic Armenians.