An ex-Samsung Electronics manager has testified that he disclosed confidential shipping data for iPad components to investors prior to the device’s release, Businessweek reports. Testifying in the insider-trading trial of Primary Global Research (PGR) exec James Fleishman, Suk-Joo Hwang, who worked for 14 years at Samsung’s U.S. division, told jurors that he had lunch with Fleishman and a hedge fund manager in Mountain View, CA, four months prior to the iPad’s launch, at which he shared the information.
“One particular thing I remember vividly was that I talked about the shipment numbers of Apple, it was about iPad,” Hwang said. “This is in December 2009, before it came out with the tablet PC, they didn’t know the name then, so I talked to them about the tablet shipment estimates in that meeting.” Hwang was working for PGR as a consultant at the time.
Hwang went on to say that a man at a nearby table was staring at him, and he became concerned that the man might be an Apple employee; shortly after the lunch, he was told by a colleague that Samsung had lost a supply contract with Apple.
“I thought, ‘Oh that guy was an Apple guy and they found out,’” Hwang said. “I was scared.” Hwang was granted immunity from prosecution by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in return for his testimony.
