Cables obtained by WikiLeaks have revealed information regarding the hiring of a former FBI agent to head Apple’s security team, focused on cracking down on product-fakes, specifically in China.
Members of Apple’s recently formed global security team were recruited from Pfizer after they executed a series of crackdowns on counterfeit Viagra production in Asia, the report says.
John Theriault, formerly Pfizer’s security chief and, before that, a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, leads Apple’s global security unit. Don Shruhan, who worked for Therigult at Pfizer, is now a director on Apple’s security team in Hong Kong.
Shruhan told the Beijing embassy official that his group at Pfizer spent five years planning raids on counterfeit drug rings, the cable says. He said he’s “afraid” of the volume of imitation Apple products being produced in China and about the inexperience of Apple’s lawyers in dealing with Chinese authorities, the report says.
But even this is unlikely to sate voracious appetite for all things Apple among China’s growing middle class… with 910m users, could exceed $9bn in the year ending September 2012. That will be up sharply from just $2.9bn in 2009.
The rise of the fake Apple stores speaks volumes about this demand…
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