Whether the recipients of the iPads had direct personal benefits or they were just donated for the department usage doesn't really matter with respect of bribery. Basically, you cannot make gifts of any larger value to anyone, who is somehow in a relationship to your business. Sometimes it is really annoying, if an honest gift was intended, but these szenarios are exactly the reason, why today you cannot make gifts which exceed a few free stickers or such.
I believe this sort of thing is explicitly outlined in the FCPA, which deals with corruption by US Corporations abroad. FCPA is pretty stringent, and this is what is covered in the in-house mandatory training you end up doing at any sizeable company. However, this is within the United States and this person appears to have been acting on Apple's behalf, so
how does this fall afoul of the law (what law in particular)?
I am not in the US, but working at an American company. From my trainings I got the impression that the anti-corrupion rules are to be obeyed globally.
That's correct. They are to be obeyed globally by the
(US) corporation, which is why they make you go through the training. When you are acting on behalf of the corporation you are expected to help the corporation comply with applicable law.
Yes. It's a crime for an American to bribe US government officials, and it's also a crime for an American to bribe foreign government agents as well (that's the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act).
The US Code is for bribing Federal officials. This one would presumably be the California felony bribery law, CA Penal Code § 67: "Every person who gives or offers any bribe to any executive officer (any public employee who is authorized to use his or her own discretion to carry out his or her lawful duties) in this state, with intent to influence him in respect to any act, decision, vote, opinion, or other proceeding as such officer, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three or four years, and is disqualified from holding any office in this state."
