What you need to know
- A man who admitted defrauding Apple out of nearly $1 million has been sentenced to 26 months in Jail.
- Haiteng Wu spent 3 1/2 years as part of a scheme that involved taking fake iPhones to the Genius Bar at Apple and convincing the company to swap them for real ones.
- Wu was ordered to pay back all of the money taken from Apple.
A Chinese man who admitted defrauding Apple out of nearly $1 million has been sentenced to 26 months in jail and ordered to pay back all of the money he stole from the company.
On Tuesday the DoJ confirmed that Haiteng Wu, a 32-year-old man from the People's Republic of China, had been sentenced to 26 months in prison (which he has already served) and had further been ordered to pay back some $987,000 in restitution, as well as the same amount again in a forfeiture money judgment.
The DoJ says Wu was found to have engaged in a 3 1/2 year scheme to defraud Apple using fake iPhones shipped from Hong Kong. The phones contained spoofed IMEI and serial numbers that corresponded to real iPhones, conspirators would then take these phones to Apple's Genius Bar to make in-warranty claims that would lead to Apple swapping the fake phone for a real one. The real phones would then be shipped to Hong Kong, a scheme that cost Apple almost $1 million. Two further Chinese nationals including Wu's wife have also pleaded guilty to similar offenses and have already served time in custody, one remains to be sentenced next month.
