Apple Fraud Scheme
CORONA (CNS) – Two Chinese nationals living in Riverside County pleaded guilty Wednesday to participating in a scheme in which counterfeit iPhones and iPads were imported from China, then exchanged at Apple stores across the Southland.
Yushan Lin, 31, and Shuyi Xing, 35, both of Corona, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Xing also pleaded guilty to an additional count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with a separate money laundering scheme involving the laundering of more than $1 million in funds from various elder fraud schemes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The real identification numbers and serial numbers on the counterfeit devices that the defendants returned were designed to impersonate genuine Apple devices owned by customers throughout the United States — and therefore deceived Apple into replacing the counterfeit devices with real devices under Apple’s warranty programs, court papers show…