Three years after pleading guilty to selling confidential product information to suppliers, a former Apple executive was sentenced last week to a one-year prison term and a $4.5 million fine.

According to CNET, Paul Devine, who was a supply manager at Apple from 2005 through 2010, had been accused of taking money for confidential details he gave out to certain Asian suppliers, which allowed them to cut more favorable deals with Apple. Devine pleaded guilty to the charges in March of 2011.

The U.S. Attorney's Office, which announced his sentence Friday, did not say why that process had stalled since then.

At one point, Devine was scheduled for sentencing in June 2011, Computerworld said, and the amount he was required to forfeit had been pegged at $2.3 million.

"His relatively light prison sentence -- he originally faced 70 years -- may have been because he cooperated with authorities," the website reported.

In his plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Devine admitted he defrauded Apple of money or property beginning in approximately February 2007, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

"[He] transmitted confidential information, such as product forecasts, pricing targets, and product specifications, to suppliers and manufacturers of Apple parts," the document said.

The 41-year-old was arrested in August 2010 when a federal indictment accused him of attempting to conceal the millions in kickbacks he received by transferring the money among several accounts, including a shell corporation.

"Devine directed suppliers and manufacturers to pay kickbacks via wire transfer to a bank account in his wife's name," the indictment claimed.

The indictment added that Devine accepted cash payoffs while traveling in Asia on Apple's behalf.

In court documents, Devine said he took kickbacks from Jacky Chua, the founder and former managing director of Singapore-based Apple supplier Jin Li Mould Manufacturing, Computerworld detailed. Chua has been charged in the Southeast Asian city-state with "corruptly giving gratifications," according to the website.

In the United States, meanwhile, federal charges are pending against Andrew Ang, San Jose Mercury News reports. Ang worked for several Apple suppliers in Singapore and is accused of sharing the kickbacks with Devine.

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