A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted two Chinese nationals on Tuesday of participating in a scheme to defraud Apple of more than $3 million by submitting more than 5,000 fake iPhones for repair. .
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday afternoon sentenced Huatian Sun (aka Hao Sun, Jack Sun, Frank Sun), 33, of Baltimore, and Pengfei Xue, 33, of Germantown, Maryland. announced. , was convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
The Justice Department said court documents and evidence submitted show that between May 2017 and September 2019, Sun and Xue, along with other co-conspirators, committed a scam in which they submitted counterfeit iPhones to Apple for repair. He said this shows that he was involved in the planning.
In exchange for your broken, non-genuine iPhone, Apple will provide you with a genuine iPhone.
Two Chinese nationals ended up receiving fake iPhone packages sent from Hong Kong to UPS mailboxes throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
The suspects then planned to submit counterfeit iPhones with forged serial numbers and IMEI numbers to Apple Authorized Service Providers and Apple Retail Stores.
Apple did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment for this story.
According to the Department of Justice, Sun opened eight UPS Store mailboxes in 2017 by providing a Maryland driver’s license and college ID.
Sun and Xue were arrested by U.S. postal inspectors in December 2019.
A federal judge will sentence the men on June 21, and both men face up to 20 years in prison.
