A former Flextronics exec is facing up to 30 years in prison for leaking details of Apple's iPhone 4 development as part of an insider trading scam.

Walter Shimoon, 39, of San Diego, California, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges. He was arrested in December.

Shimoon is accused of using his position at Flextronics to get secret information about Apple's iPad and iPhone 4 development both from within the company and from other component makers. This included sales forecasts and product specs.

The allegation is that he passed this information onto Primary Global Research, which in turn paid him thousands of dollars for the secrets.

A DOJ statement said Shimoon: "also provided inside information to a consultant who operated a research firm and then provided the information to certain money managers."

Shimoon will be sentenced on Friday 8 July. ®

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