(NewsNation) — Two Chinese nationals have been convicted by a federal jury for their roles in a “sophisticated” plot to defraud Apple Inc. out of 5,000 iPhones, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Haotian Sun, 33, who also goes by the names Hao Sun, Jack Sun and Frank Sun, and Pengfei Xue, also 33, both of Maryland, spent over two years submitting more than 5,000 fake iPhones to Apple Inc. for repair, hoping the company would exchange the counterfeit items with genuine replacements.
Per the DOJ, the duo received shipments of fake phones from suppliers in Hong Kong at UPS Store mailboxes spread throughout the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area.
“They then submitted the fake iPhones, with spoofed serial numbers and/or IMEI numbers, to Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers,” the DOJ said.
Had it succeeded, the plot would have cost Apple more than $3 million.
Sun and Xue were arrested in December 2019 and subsequently charged with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Following their convictions, each faces up to 20 years in prison.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 21.
The pair are not the first to attempt such a scheme on this scale. According to the City News Service, Zhimin and Zhiting Liao received 41-month sentences last year for their roles leading a crime ring that attempted to exchange 10,000 fake iPhones and iPads from China for real ones over an eight-year period.
