A 32-year old man has been sentenced to 26 months for defrauding Apple.
Haiteng Wu came to the US in 2013 and tricked Apple into replacing fake iPhones with real smartphones through the company’s warranty program. He and other conspirators received counterfeit iPhones from Hong Kong, then reported under fake names to demand that Apple replace the handsets as they no longer worked.
Once Apple replaced the fake with real ones, Wu and the others sent them back to Hong Kong and other regions where they were sold. In addition, Wu and others, including his wife have used aliases and created fake IDs to carry out the operation.
Wu recently admitted to defrauding approximately $1 million from Apple and went to trial in December 2019. In May 2020, Wu and his wife pleaded guilty to mail fraud and were ordered to pay $987k in restitution. Wu received 26 months in jail while his wife was sentenced to 5 months.