A family mafia worthy of a movie
Although Haiteng Wu is of Chinese origin, it is known that since 2013 he has lived in McLean, a small town in Fairfax County (Virginia – United States). He even had a completely legal job that allowed him to be a citizen. However, he had a dark second life of crime.
Wu spent 3 years receiving counterfeit iPhones from Hong Kong, which completely gave the impression of being original because they came with perfectly spoofed IMEI numbers and that in Apple systems they were listed as completely authentic devices. Taking advantage of this, he managed to deceive the company’s technical service to receive original spare parts from them.
Wu managed to recruit more people, including his wife, who served as hooks. The strategy was clear: the counterfeit iPhones came with some defect made on purpose and that served so that the Apple Store would detect it as defective and give it a original replacement which was covered by warranty. Obviously, the company did not find it strange because the IMEI of the fakes seemed to be in order and there were no other indications that they were not original.
In the end, Wu and his partners managed to obtain a number of original iPhones in exchange for the fake ones, which amounted to more than 1 million dollars. It has not transpired, or not exactly, what he later did with the original devices. However, it is foreseeable that he would later take the opportunity to sell these terminals in second-hand markets, either in the United States or in China.
Sentenced to 26 months in prison
It is not known whether it was Apple who detected irregularities with these processes or it was another entity or individual. The fact is that Wu and his partners were arrested at the end of 2019 and, far from denying the facts, pleaded guilty in a trial held in May 2020.
After having followed the judicial process, both the police investigations and the statements made by Wu himself and his partners have led Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to declare him guilty this week. With this, he condemned him to pay a $987,000 finein addition to sentencing him to 26 months in prison.
Logically, Wu was not the only one condemned. His wife, who also pleaded guilty, was already sentenced at that time to 5 months in prison that have already been served. Another of his main partners, also found guilty, is still under investigation and will hear his sentence next month.
As some media such as MacRumors remember, there have been other similar cases in the past. The also Chinese Quan Jiang was sentenced a couple of years ago to three years in prison after being found guilty in an act identical to this one, with the smuggling of counterfeit iPhones. Apple has remained on the sidelines, although in both cases it has received financial compensation for the losses generated as a result of these crimes.
