The most recent defendant in a multi-million dollar fraud scam has been sentenced to prison time. For his part in the plan, Teang Liu has been sentenced to prison time and heavy penalties.
Fake clones were sent from Hong Kong with forged IMEI and serial numbers that matched genuine Apple products. Liu and other conspirators would then return these phoney gadgets to Apple, claiming that they were still covered by their warranty.. The idea was to get replacement iPhones that were real.
Authentic replacement models were subsequently sent to conspirators across the world, including Hong Kong, where they were received.
Liu was persuaded by Haiteng Wu, who had already been convicted, to participate in the plan. Wu and Liu also obtained phoney IDs, established many commercial mail receiving mailboxes, and planned for the participants of the conspiracy to travel around the United States as part of the plot.
Apple was fined over $1 million as a result of the incident. December 2019 saw the arrests of the conspirators.
In February 2021, Liu admitted to the crime. In addition to the $577,780 in fines and restitution, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan also imposed a forfeiture judgement of $57,780 on Liu.
It was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Postal Inspector Service.