MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — A Chinese national living in the U.S. was sentenced to prison today for a scheme in which counterfeit Apple devices were exchanged for real ones at Apple Manhattan Village and elsewhere in the greater Los Angeles area.
The counterfeit iPhones and iPads were imported from China and exchanged at the Apple Manhattan Village store on Sepulveda Boulevard, as well as other Apple stores across the region, for genuine devices.
The scheme cost the tech company at least $16.2 million in losses, according to Apple.
The perpetrator, Zhengxuan Hu, 28, of Alhambra, was sentenced to two years behind bars and also ordered by U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. to pay a share of $16.2 million in restitution to Apple.
Hu pleaded guilty in August 2025 to one federal count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud.
Five other defendants also pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court and await sentencing.
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, the defendants not only targeted the Apple store in Manhattan Beach, but ones in Beverly Hills, Sherman Oaks, Pasadena, Northridge, Cerritos and Orange County, as well as 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 returning the counterfeit devices for genuine ones, the defendants were accused of shipping the new devices to co-conspirators in the U.S., China, and elsewhere, where the genuine Apple devices were resold at a profit.
A March 27 sentencing hearing is scheduled for the group’s ringleader, Wenhui Huang, 41, of Chino Hills.
City News Service contributed to this report.