Tim Cook: EU tax ruling was 'total political crap'

REUTERS/Stephen Lam

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Thursday described the European Union's imposition of a 13 billion euro ($14.5 billion) back tax bill as "total political crap" motivated in part by anti-U.S. bias, the Irish Independent reported.

Cook told the newspaper in an interview he would work closely with Ireland to try to overturn the decision and said the U.S. tech giant was committed to its operations in Ireland.

"No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together. Ireland is being picked on and this is unacceptable," Cook was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "It's total political crap."

He said anti-U.S. bias was "one reason why we could have been targeted," the newspaper reported. 

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Susan Thomas)