A Michigan man accused of obtaining up to 9,000 iPod shuffles from Apple which he resold online has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to prison, as well as receiving a number of fines.
Nicholas Woodhams has been sentenced by the US District Court to 13 months in prison, with US attorney Donald Davis saying “this was not a victimless crime because the costs of fraud are borne by both the consumer and the taxpayer”.
Woodhams created a number of iPod serial numbers that he then sent to Apple in order to obtain new devices under the company’s warranty program. He then resold the gadgets for $US49 each. Woodhams ran an iPod repair business under the names iPod Mechanic iMechanic and Pod Tradeup.
He pled guilty to mail fraud and money laundering, and agreed to give up, according to Davis, “a home in Portage, Michigan, an Audi S4 sedan, an Ariel Atom 2 racing car, a Honda motorcycle, six computers and more than $US570,000 in US currency”.
Woodhams, along with his jail sentence, must reimburse Apple $US648,568.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
