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Apple’s head of global security has been charged with bribery.
Thomas Moyer is accused of offering bribes in the form of 200 iPads worth $70,000 (£52,501) to two police officers in California to obtain concealed firearms licenses last year.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said a grand jury indicted the 50-year-old and two officers in the Sheriff’s Office on Monday.
Rick Sung, 48, the county undersheriff, and James Jensen, 43, a sheriff’s captain, are charged with soliciting bribes for concealed firearms licenses.
Mr Moyer’s lawyer, Ed Swanson, said he was innocent. Apple said it had conducted its own investigation and found no wrongdoing.
Mr Swanson said Mr Moyer had applied for weapon permits for some Apple security personnel to protect executives and employees after shootings at other Silicon Valley tech firms, such as a 2018 incident at YouTube’s headquarters.
“They went through the process the way you’re supposed to do it,” he said, adding the iPad donations were unconnected to the permits.
“There was no bribe, no quid pro quo,” he said.
Under state law, carrying concealed firearms is illegal without a permit, known as CWW licenses.
Santa Clara County district attorney’s office alleges the two police officers held back issuing concealed weapons licenses to Apple until Mr Moyer agreed to a donation to the Sheriff’s Office.
The “promised donation” was “scuttled at the eleventh hour” in August 2019, when Mr Sung and Mr Moyer learned of a search warrant to seize the Sheriff’s Office’s concealed firearms licenses records, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.
If convicted, those charged could face a prison sentence.
