Two Chinese Nationals Sentenced in $16.2 Million Apple Counterfeit Return Fraud Scheme
Two Chinese nationals have been sentenced to federal prison for leading a trans-Pacific scheme that defrauded Apple Inc. through the return of thousands of counterfeit iPhones, iPads and other devices, causing at least US$16.2 million in losses.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said on August 28, 2026 that Wenhui Huang, 41, of Chino Hills, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison. Huang had pleaded guilty in May 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, and engaging in a monetary transaction involving property derived from specified unlawful activity. The court also ordered him to pay US$16,239,254 in restitution.
According to prosecutors, the group returned counterfeit Apple devices to obtain genuine replacements, then shipped the authentic products to co-conspirators in the United States and overseas, primarily in China, where they were resold for profit.
The Justice Department said the case has resulted in six convictions. Yushan Lin, 32, and Shuyi Xing, 36, were sentenced earlier in the week to 18 months of home detention and 38 months in federal prison, respectively. Both were ordered to pay restitution, and prosecutors said the pair fraudulently returned or attempted to return at least 1,584 counterfeit devices, causing more than US$1.1 million in actual losses in their part of the scheme.
Two other defendants, Zhengxuan Hu and Junwei Jiang, had previously received prison terms of 24 months and 36 months.
The case has a clear illicit-finance element because Huang was convicted of conducting a monetary transaction with criminally derived property. The public release does not provide a detailed transaction-by-transaction laundering trail, so no additional money-flow methodology is inferred here.
