Brothers who scammed Apple for $6.1 million in iPhones and iPads sentenced to prison

A federal judge in California this week sentenced two brothers to 41 months in prison each after they admitted to an eight-year-old iPhone and iPad international conspiracy scheme during which they scammed Apple out of more than $6 million.

Natalie Neysa Alund for USA Today:
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Zhiting Liao, 33, and Zhimin Liao, 36, both from San Diego, pleaded guilty on June 2 to conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods for trafficking fraudulently obtained iPhones and iPads, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California.
The men and a third brother − identified in court papers as 34-year-old Zhiwei Liao − were indicted in October 2019. Online records show Zhiwei Liao also pleaded guilty in connection to the case in June. He’s slated to be sentenced on Oct. 30.
“For years, the Liao brothers and their co-conspirators trafficked thousands of counterfeit Apple products in exchange for genuine Apple products totaling millions of dollars,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy said in the release.
The brother’s wives, 32-year-old Dao La; 31-year-old Mengmeng Zhang; and 39-year-old Tam Nguyen, also pleaded guilty in June to charges of wire fraud and mail fraud in the case, Kelly Thornton, a spokesperson for the office said Thursday.
All three wives were sentenced to three years in prison, court documents show.

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MacDailyNews Note: The Liaos admitted that, from 2011 through at least August 2019, they managed an organization to traffic in counterfeit Apple products, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California said in a statement. The Liaos imported counterfeit iPhones and iPads from China that looked genuine and included identification numbers that matched identification numbers on real iPhones and iPads that were under warranty and had been previously sold to customers in the United States and Canada.
At the direction of the Liao brothers, co-conspirators traveled to hundreds of Apple Stores across the United States and Canada and attempted to exchange more than 10,000 counterfeit iPhones and iPads for genuine iPhones and iPads. The Liaos exported fraudulently obtained iPhones and iPads to individuals in foreign countries for profit. The estimated total infringement amount or loss suffered by Apple was approximately $6.1 million.
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