Two men convicted for submitting 5,000 fake iPhones for replacements

From May 2017 to September 2019, Haotian Sun, 33, and Pengfei Xue, 33, both of Maryland, submitted counterfeit iPhones to Apple for repair to get Apple to exchange them with genuine replacement iPhones, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sun and Xue received shipments of inauthentic iPhones from Hong Kong at mailboxes and changed their serial numbers and IMEI numbers. They then submitted the phones to Apple retail stores.

Sun and Xue used various aliases during the scheme, which they commited with other conspirators. The two were arrested on Dec. 5, 2019.

The jury convicted Sun and Xue of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. They are scheduled to be sentenced on June 21 and each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Another Chinese national, Haiteng Wu, 32, earlier this month was sentenced to 26 months in prison for a similar crime. He defrauded Apple of more than $1 million by submitting hundreds of fake iPhones to get replacements.