Ever wondered just how the Asian iPhone and iPod accessory makers manage to come up with goods that match the Apple product specs before those specs are known to the industry? Well it’s probably because someone inside Apple has been selling trade secrets.

According to an article over on Intomobile by Kelly Hodgkins, and by way of an article over on the Mercury News, a global supply manager for Apple by the name of Paul Shin Devine was arrested on Friday for wire fraud, money laundering and receiving kickbacks after being indicted for selling Apple iPhone and Apple iPod trade secrets.

Apparently the Apple manager received in excess of $1 million from Asian accessory makers over several years, for info on the iPhone and iPod Touch which was used by the Asian accessory makers to arrange “lucrative deals” with Apple.

Apparently the federal indictment says that the scheme involved US and international bank accounts with some of those bank accounts being opened using Devine’s wife’s name. The word is many of the transactions came through a bogus company called CPK Engineering and this is from where Devine received his bribes and kickbacks.

Andrew Ang of Singapore was also charged in the case as he was a recipient of some of the info. The Asian companies involved in the secrets trading were not named but are material suppliers for both the iPhone and iPod Touch and are located in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and China.

Furthermore Paul Shin Devine also faces a civil lawsuit which has been filed on behalf of Apple that seeks damages, although to what extend these damages are is unknown as the nature of the leaked info has not been revealed.