CALIFORNIA – The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced September 4 that two California residents pleaded guilty to a trans-Pacific scheme that defrauded Apple of $16.2 million by returning thousands of counterfeit devices.
Yushan Lin, 31, and Shuyi Xing, 35, of Corona, admitted to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. They are the final defendants to plead guilty in the Southern California counterfeit Apple device fraud case.
The four other defendants who have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing are:
- Wenhui Huang, 40, of Chino Hills, identified as the group’s ringleader;
- Yang Song, 38, of Corona, the group’s second-in-command;
- Junwei Jiang, 38, of East Los Angeles; and
- Zhengxuan Hu, 27, of Alhambra.
From 2015 to 2024, Huang, Song and others worked with China-based partners to smuggle counterfeit Apple devices to U.S. co-conspirators, according to plea agreements.
The counterfeit devices were made to look genuine, using identification numbers from real Apple products under warranty in North America.
Once in the U.S., the defendants fraudulently returned the counterfeit devices as if they were genuine and eligible for Apple’s warranty programs.
They falsely claimed the devices were defective and covered by Apple’s warranties, telling employees the devices wouldn’t power on, were damaged, or had other defects. The defendants knowingly used real serial numbers to defraud Apple and device owners.
Returned or attempted to return at least 1,584 counterfeit devices
As part of the scheme, they visited numerous Apple stores across Southern California, including stores in Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Irvine, and major malls like The Grove and South Coast Plaza.
In some cases, they visited up to 10 Apple stores to return counterfeit devices.
Employees either replaced or repaired the devices with genuine ones or sent them to a repair center. Apple then sent genuine replacements or repaired devices to the defendants, either at Apple stores or to UPS mailbox locations they rented across Southern California.
The defendants resold the genuine Apple devices to co-conspirators in the U.S. and China for significant profit.
Lin and Xing personally returned or attempted to return at least 1,584 counterfeit devices, causing over $1.1 million in losses to Apple.
Xing faces 40 years in prison
Xing also admitted to conspiring to launder over $1 million from various elder fraud schemes.
Judge Andre Birotte Jr. set December 10 sentencing hearings for Lin, facing 20 years, and Xing, facing 40 years in federal prison.
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