Whippers reported that on February 21, according to foreign news reports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia released information that two men in Maryland sent thousands of counterfeit iPhones to Apple for repair in exchange for ** replacement iPhones, and on Tuesday, a federal jury found two men guilty. Now faces up to 20 years in prison.
Sun Haotian, 33, from Baltimore, and Xue Pengfei, 33, from Germantown, Maryland, obtained counterfeit iPhones from Hong Kong in 2017, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Over the next two years, they submitted about 5,000 phones to Apple and authorized service providers, and even forged serial numbers to ensure that their deception would not be easily discovered.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Sun and Xue are Chinese citizens, but it is unclear how long the two have lived in the United States.
In addition to forging serial numbers, the two men used various pseudonyms to cover their tracks. According to **Prosecutors, the total amount of fraud in the entire scheme was approximately $3 million.
Two brothers in San Diego, Zhimin and Zhiting Liao, were sentenced to 41 months in prison last year for the same scheme to exchange counterfeit iPhones and iPads. According to the San Diego Times, Apple products were then given to people abroad.
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. reported that U.S. District Court Judge Timothy JKelly is scheduled to pronounce sentencing on Sun and Xue on June 21.