Earlier this year, a Chinese student named Quan Jiang, who was enrolled at a college in Oregon, was found guilty of scamming Apple for nearly $ 1 million. Due to which, he has now been sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison by a U.S district judge. Following which he will reportedly be deported back to his home country.
According to court documents, Quan Jiang and his partner, Yangyang Zhou imported thousands of fake iPhones from China and then filled warranty complaints with Apple, claiming the units were non-functional as they would not turn on. The company would then replace these counterfeit units with genuine ones which the duo would ship back to their country to be sold at a profit, out of which he would receive a small cut. Reportedly, he earned $20 to $30 for each new iPhone he then sent back and made about $40,000 in total.
Apple told investigators that 1,493 iPhone units in total have been issued to offenders, each of which incurred Apple a loss $ 600. Moreover, it was revealed that the company had rejected replacement of 1576 other such devices, on the grounds of tampering which were then returned to the sender.
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Surprisingly, Apple did not identify these units as counterfeit, revealed the documents submitted to the court. While it was mandatory for these units to have a valid IMEI number that had remaining warranty, it is still unknown where or how did Jiang and his partner got hold of crucial detail for these many units. Having said that, Apple discontinued printing serial numbers on devices after the iPhone 6 Plus model.
The offender has already paid Apple $ 200,000 which he obtained after his parents sold their home in China. He has also been ordered to forfeit his 2015 Mercedes-Benz. The offender will stay on GPS monitoring until his surrender to prison on December 5.
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