U.S Based Chinese National Handed Three Year Prison Term for Smuggling Fake Apple Products

Fake iPhones or iPhone clones are dangerously close to the real deal. The attention to detail is such that the fake iPhones sometime fool trained eyes. In the recent turn of events, a Chinese national based in the U.S has been sentenced to 37 months prison term for importing counterfeit Apple products.

The perpetrator imported iPhone and iPads from China into the U.S. Apart from the 37-month prison sentence, Jianhua Jeff Li will also get another year of supervised release. According to the Department of Justice, Jeff Li smuggled 40,000 fake Apple products from China to the U.S. He was also involved in smuggling labels and packaging container with counterfeit Apple trademarks.

Li shipped the iPhones without packaging and thus evaded detection by U.S Customs and Border Protection officials. Li used his company, Dream Digitals to smuggle “electronic devices and accessories including iPhones and iPads. Once received, the devices were packed and sent all across the U.S.

Jianhua “Jeff” Li, 43, was living in the United States on a student visa and has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to traffic counterfeit goods to smuggle goods into the United States, as well as one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods.”

CNET reports that more than $1.1 million in sales were wired from US accounts to overseas accounts controlled by Li. It is worth noting that Li’s associated were also handed over a prison sentence.

Li and his company Dream Digitals had worked with Andreina Becerra, Roberto Volpe, Rosario LaMarca and others on the scheme. Becerra, sentenced in October 2018, got three years’ probation; Volpe got 22 months in prison, and was also sentenced at that time; and LaMarca got 37 months in prison after being sentenced back in July 2017.If you lost data after you updated to a new iPhone, you can always use Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery to get the data back from the old iPhone or backup.You may also like: iphonerecovery.com

Our Take

Apple’s devices are very much in demand and even used devices tend to fetch good value in the market. This is one of the many reasons why the iPhone is a thief’s favorite. Apple figures our among the world’s most counterfeited brands and the recent haul of fake iPhones doesn’t come as a surprise. Earlier this year, Apple thanked the Korean police for successfully foiling sale of counterfeit Apple products worth $892k. It is always advised to do due diligence before buying a new Apple Product.

[via CNET]