Apple Defrauded Out Of More Than $16M By IE Men, Sentences Handed Down

LOS ANGELES — Two Inland Empire men were sentenced to federal prison Friday for leading an international scheme that defrauded Apple Inc. out of more than $16 million by returning counterfeit iPhones and iPads in exchange for genuine devices, federal prosecutors announced.

U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. sentenced the group's ringleader, Wenhui Huang, 41, of Chino Hills, to six and a half years in federal prison and ordered him to pay $16.2 million in restitution.

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Huang's second-in-command, Yang Song, 39, of Corona, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison and ordered to pay $17 million in restitution.

Huang pleaded guilty in May 2025 to wire and mail fraud conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit goods conspiracy, and engaging in monetary transactions derived from unlawful activity. Song pleaded guilty in June 2025 to 21 counts of fraud, counterfeiting, and money laundering.

Prosecutors said the duo directed a scheme spanning from December 2015 to March 2024 that relied on counterfeit Apple devices smuggled from China into the U.S.

The fake devices were built using stolen serial and identification numbers belonging to real Apple products owned by customers across North America. Because the stolen numbers corresponded to devices covered under AppleCare+ or standard manufacturer warranties, the fake hardware tricked Apple employees into issuing legitimate replacement devices.

Group members visited dozens of Apple stores across Southern California — including locations in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Pasadena, and Los Angeles — often visiting up to 10 stores in a single day to submit fake claims. They claimed the devices were broken or would not power on.

Once Apple issued genuine replacement items at retail locations or shipped them to commercial mailboxes rented across the region, the conspirators shipped the authentic hardware to buyers in the U.S. and China, where the devices were resold at a profit.

Huang and Song are the final defendants sentenced in the case, which yielded six federal convictions.

Co-defendants Yushan Lin, 32, and Shuyi Xing, 36, both of Corona, were previously sentenced to 18 months of home detention and 38 months in prison, respectively. Two other co-conspirators, Zhengxuan Hu, 28, of Alhambra, and Junwei Jiang, 39, of East Los Angeles, previously received prison sentences of 24 months and 36 months.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and IRS Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Los Angeles Police Department.