Imagine the situation: you buy a iPhone and initially it works exactly as expected. Until one day long before any defect is minimally acceptable, it will no longer work, and when you take it to an Apple Authorized Service Center, you will find that it is made of rejected parts. Inverossmil? For that was exactly what was happening in China.
According to the website Taiwan News, a scam was recently discovered in one of the factories of FoxconnIt is one of Apple's main partners and is responsible for assembling almost all models of iPhones sold worldwide.
The operation consisted of joining rejected parts of iPhones parts with small defects that, in Apple's instructions, should be destroyed and use them to assemble functional devices, sold in the parallel market. Factory managers and employees Zhengzhou (China) would be involved in the scheme, with a Foxconn Taiwanese executive leading the whole thing.
More precisely, the officials involved in the scheme sold the rejected parts to an organized crime gang that was responsible for assembling and selling fake iPhones. almost counterfeit). The operation appears to have lasted three years and generated no less than NT $ 1.3 billion ($ 175 million) to the leaders of the scheme.
The crime was reported last June by an anonymous Foxconn employee who emailed Tim Cook directly about the fraud. Apple is investigating the case through its Business Audit and Assurance Department, which reports directly to the company's board of directors; Foxconn also initiated an internal investigation.
via 9to5Mac
