The scandal of defective components being recycled by unscrupulous subcontractors into aero engines and airframes puts anyone that flies into a state of terror, but the criminal activities of a handful of unscrupulous aircraft parts companies seems to be only the tip of the iceberg, and Western Digital Corp appears to have been the victim of a similar scam itself. The Irvine, California company has filed a $25m lawsuit against five people, three of them former employees, alleging that they distributed an estimated 1m defective disk controller circuits that were intended to be scrapped. According to Electronic News, the suit seeks return of the parts as well as charging the defendents with fraud. The parts in question include four types of hard disk controller – 3402, 3204, 7283 and 6183; the 4765 floppy disk controller; the 3393 SCSI interface device; the Paradise PVGA1A video graphics array controller and the Paradise PVC-2 low-resolution circuit. If good, the parts would have had a resale value totalling about $5m. The company is seeking $10m in exemplary and punitive damages, $10m for damage to its reputation, the sale price of the products sold, put at $5m, and legal fees, plus the return of the parts.
