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SACRAMENTO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced the
arraignment of two individuals who allegedly bought large numbers of stolen
smartphones in California for resale in Hong Kong, raking in nearly $4
million in less than a year. The arraignment follows a six-month, multi-
state investigation into the trafficking of stolen smart phones by the
California Attorney General’s eCrime Unit.
“This international theft ring used fraud and deceit to steal smartphones
and exploit the homeless,” said Attorney General Harris. “I applaud the
hard work of our Special Agents whose tenacious investigation put an end to
this criminal enterprise.”
Defendants Shou Lin Wen, 39, of Sacramento, and Yuting Tan, 27, of
Sacramento, were arrested on March 6 and arraigned today on eight felony
counts of money laundering, grand theft, possession of stolen property and
conspiracy. They are being held in Sacramento County Jail on $1 million bail
each.
According to the arrest warrant, co-conspirators in the scheme enlisted
individuals from homeless shelters to purchase multiple smart phones such as
the Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Blackberry from cell phone carriers.
Carriers allow individuals to purchase up to five phones in their name under
one plan at a discounted rate. The straw purchasers then delivered the
phones to the co-conspirators for a nominal payment. It is alleged that the
straw purchasers never intended to follow through with paying for the phones
’ contracts which, under California law, constitutes committing theft by
false pretenses and designates the phones as stolen property.
Hundreds of stolen phones were then bundled from across the country by
middlemen and sent to Wen and Tan, the scheme’s ringleaders, in California.
Wen and Tan profited by shipping the stolen phones to Hong Kong, where
iPhones can go for as much as $2,000.
Special Agents with the eCrime Unit conducted surveillance operations and
tracked parcels across the country to identify the ringleaders. According to
the arrest warrant, agents intercepted four of the 110 parcels shipped by
Wen and Tan to Hong Kong during the past 12 months. The 412 phones seized
from these packages were traced back to phony customers as far away as North
Carolina.
During an eight-month period, the defendants’ business self-reported gross
sales of $3,948,485.
On March 6, Special Agents with the eCrime Unit conducted an undercover
operation in the Sacramento West Marine parking lot, during which they
offered to sell 408 “stolen” iPhone 4s and iPhone 5s to Wen and Tan. The
defendants agreed to pay $60,600 in cash for 163 phones and were arrested
after producing the cash.
In 2011, Attorney General Harris created the eCrime Unit to investigate and
prosecute identity theft crimes, cyber crimes and other crimes involving the
use of technology.
Photos, and the complaint are attached to the electronic version of this
release at: |
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