About 10 iPhone makers jailed for stealing $150,000 worth of devices

Tim Cook meeting an iPhone manufacturer in China.
Photo: Apple

Ten employees of Apple manufacturer Pegatron have been jailed after stealing and selling 227 iPhones, 360 motherboards and 58 Apple batteries — with a total market value of $154,000.

Six permanent Pegatron staffers and four canteen workers were in on the thievery. Two of the workers, surnamed Pei and Shi, managed to steal five iPhone 6 handsets last year by hiding them in a restroom at the factory where they were employed, and then transferring them to a canteen employee, surnamed Li, who removed them from the premises.


After additional employees were recruited to help in the scam, more than 200 iPhones and assorted accessories were stolen between June 2014 and January 2015.
Sentences for the 10 thieves range from eight months to seven years, with the charges being theft, embezzlement and concealing illicit gains.
While it may be difficult to imagine how this kind of theft could have gone undetected for six months and hundreds of missing iPhones, it’s worth pointing out just how enormous Pegatron is — and how many iPhones it’s building. Just last year, the company hired an extra 40,000 (!) workers to cope with the iPhone 6s orders it received.

Credit: CultOfMac