Haotian Sun and Pengfei Xue, residing in Maryland, found guilty of defrauding Apple by swapping counterfeit iPhones for genuine ones. Scheme involved over 5,000 fake phones and faces maximum 20-year prison term.
BollywoodFever, February 22: Haotian Sun and Pengfei Xue, Chinese nationals residing in Maryland, have been convicted of defrauding Apple in a sophisticated scheme.
The duo orchestrated a plan to exchange counterfeit iPhones for authentic ones through Apple’s repair process.
Following a trial in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, a federal jury found Sun and Xue guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
This charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The United States Attorney’s Office disclosed details of the scam in a press release on February 20, 2024.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed that Sun, Xue, and their associates executed the scheme between May 2017 and September 2019.
The modus operandi involved receiving shipments of counterfeit iPhones from Hong Kong at UPS mailboxes across the D.C. Metropolitan area.
These fake devices, equipped with spoofed serial numbers and IMEI numbers, were then submitted to Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers, including the Apple Store in Georgetown.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, the conspirators managed to submit over 5,000 counterfeit phones to Apple during the duration of the scheme, aiming to inflict a loss of more than $3 million on the tech giant.
The defendants used aliases throughout the operation but were apprehended on December 5, 2019.
Although court documents did not disclose the fate of the genuine iPhones obtained from the stores, sentencing for Sun and Xue is scheduled for June 21, 2024.
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