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Two University of Oregon students from China were accused of fraudulently buying an iPhone, which would have brought them close to a million dollars.
The two students, Yangyang Zhou and Quon Jiang, reportedly returned fake iPhones to Apple, saying they were not working. When the tech giant sent a new legitimate replacement phone, the couple sold them to a broker – usually overseas, according to a complaint filed by the federal government last month at the US District Court in Oregon. Federal prosecutors allege that both students would benefit from reduced profits. All sales were made online.
Zhou was a student at Oregon State, in Corvallis, Oregon, while Jiang attended Linn Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon. Both attended visas of legal foreign students.
According to the documents, Jiang, who took charge of the project, was charged with smuggling and wire fraud, while Zhou is accused of making false or misleading statements about a misrepresentation. ;export. Jiang could be sentenced to 30 years in prison and fined $ 2 million. Zhou faces a fine of $ 10,000 and a maximum of five years in prison.
(The Associated Press) FILE – This 22 October 2018 photo file shows the iPhone XR, left, with only one lens, and the iPhone XS Max with two lenses, in New York. Wall Street expects the latest quarterly snapshot of Apple to show mixed results. Financial analysts predict that the technology giant's first-quarter earnings increased over the previous year, while revenues declined. Apple publishes its results for the October-December quarter on Tuesday, January 29. (AP Photo / Richard Drew, File)The Oregonian was the first to report the ploy.
The investigation began two years ago, in April 2017, when Portland authorities were warned of a counterfeit iPhone shipment by US Customs and Border Protection, according to the record.
Zhou received 216 warranty claims, or addresses associated with it, while 3,069 warranty claims were submitted by Jiang. The 1,500 or so claimed claims cost Apple about $ 895,800, according to court records.
Despite the successes, about 1,600 warranty claims were also rejected by Apple on suspicion of counterfeiting or tampering, the report said.
(The Associated Press) DOSSIER – In this photo of January 3, 2019, a man leaves an Apple store in Beijing. A Commercial Court judge will recommend banning the importation of certain iPhones in the US after finding that Apple's top-selling device violated technology owned by the maker of Qualcomm mobile phone chips. The decision of the US Trade International Trade Commission is the latest twist of a bitter legal dispute between Qualcomm and Apple over the rights of some of the technology allowing the iPhone to connect to the Internet. (AP Photo / Andy Wong, File)In an interview with investigators, the two men said that they would pay friends and relatives for them to accept replacement phones at addresses in China. Even Jiang's mothers were involved in the fraud scheme, according to the investigators.
"Jiang explained that in exchange for his work and efforts, his partner in China pays Jiang's mother, who also resides in China, who in turn pays the proceeds of the sale. [bank] account that Jiang is able to access here in the United States, "says the court record.
Apple never told Jiang that the iPhone was fake, he said, according to the December 2017 interview cited in the complaint.
The authorities seized several of Mr. Zhou's Apple products while he was at the San Francisco International Airport before he departed for China in August 2018. The photos on the phone included dozens of small white boxes with Apple product codes and stacks of empty cardboard shipping cartons from Apple.
Jiang's lawyer refused to comment on the Oregonian, while Zhou's lawyer told the newspaper, "We think Mr. Zhou will be justified."
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