Chinese man pleads guilty to selling counterfeit Apple products in US

Jianhua Li a Chinese living in the US on a student visa, has pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking over 40,000 counterfeit electronic devices from China between 2009 and 2014, including iPads and iPhones.

He received a whopping $1.1 million in payments for several years of contraband. He was also not alone in the elaborate scheme; three others - Andreina Becerra, Rosario LaMarca and Roberto Volpe - were allegedly involved. Li has already pleaded guilty.

According to the justice department, the group tried hard to disguise their activities. They even shipped the counterfeit labels separate from the devices to avoid border control, and used carefully crafted money deposits and transfers to hide the source of the ill-gotten revenue.

Operations of the kind are common worldwide, but it is not often that relatively large counterfeiters are caught in the US. Commentators point out that counterfeit electronics often cost so much less than the real products (particularly with newer Apple gadgets) that, even at a steep markup, they may seem like a bargain and lucrative prospect to make some quick bucks with little effort.

''Jianhua 'Jeff' Li, pleaded guilty before US District Court Judge Kevin McNulty of New Jersey to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and labels and to smuggle goods into the US, and one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods,'' the US Department of Justice said in a statement late on Friday.

He also received payments amounting to over $1.1 million in sales proceeds from US accounts into his bank accounts.

Li was charged and taken into custody in 2015.

The Chinese citizen, worked through his company ''Dream Digitals'' from July 2009-February 2014 and conspired with Becerra, Volpe, LaMarca and others to smuggle and traffic into the US from China over 40,000 electronic devices and accessories.