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Haotian Sun, of Baltimore, and Pengfei Xuem, of Germantown, both 33, were found guilty this week for their roles in a sophisticated operation involving upwards of 5,000 devices.
According to prosecutors, between May 2017 and September 2019, Sun, Xue, and other conspirators defrauded Apple Inc. by submitting counterfeit phones to Apple for repair to get the company to exchange them with genuine replacement iPhones.
Sun and Xue received shipments of inauthentic iPhones from Hong Kong at UPS mailboxes throughout the DMV region, they said.
The two then submitted the fake iPhones, with spoofed serial numbers and/or IMEI numbers, to Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers, including the Apple Store in Georgetown.
It was determined that they and others submitted more than 5,000 phony phones to Apple during the conspiracy, intending to cause a loss of more than $3 million to the company.
During the operation, Sun and Xue used various aliases, officials added, until they were arrested on Dec. 5, 2019.
Sun and Xue were found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and mail fraud. They face up to 20 years in prison when they are sentenced in June.
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