Two Chinese nationals living in the Inland Empire were sentenced to federal prison Friday for participating in a scheme in which counterfeit iPhones and iPads were imported from China and exchanged at Apple stores across Southern California for genuine devices, causing the tech company at least $16.2 million in losses.
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Wenhui Huang, 41, of Chino Hills, the group’s ringleader, was sentenced to six years and six months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr., who also ordered him to pay $16.2 million in restitution.
Huang pleaded guilty in May 2025 in Los Angeles federal court to one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, and engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity.
Birotte also sentenced Yang Song, 39, of Corona, the group’s second-in-command, to just under five years behind bars, and ordered him to pay $16.9 million in restitution.
Song pleaded guilty in June 2025 to 21 counts of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, in addition to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for a separate scheme involving the funneling of proceeds of various frauds to overseas.
Huang and Song are the final defendants to be sentenced in the long-running case.
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In the scheme, which operated from December 2015 to March 2024, counterfeit iPhones and iPads were imported from China and exchanged at Apple stores across the Southland for genuine devices, causing the Cupertino-based tech company at least $16.2 million in losses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The real identification numbers and serial numbers on the counterfeit devices that the defendants returned were designed to impersonate genuine Apple devices owned by customers throughout the United States — and therefore deceived Apple into replacing the counterfeit devices with real ones under Apple’s warranty programs, court papers show.
As part of the scheme, prosecutors say, defendants visited multiple Apple stores throughout Southern California, including in Beverly Hills, Sherman Oaks, Pasadena, Irvine, Northridge, Manhattan Beach, Brea, Rancho Cucamonga, Cerritos and at shopping malls such as The Grove in Los Angeles, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Fashion Island in Newport Beach and The Americana at Brand in Glendale.
After successfully returning the counterfeit devices for genuine ones, the defendants shipped the new devices to accomplices both in the United States and abroad, primarily in China, where the genuine Apple devices were resold at a substantial profit.
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Four others were also convicted in the case.