Foxconn Ex-Senior Manager Indicted for Stealing and Selling $1.65 Million Worth of iPhones

From time to time, we come across a story about some highly-calculated, brazen theft of Apple products — with the culprits, generally speaking, ultimately being apprehended by authorities and served a heaping dose of justice after all is said and done.

And so the story goes, once again, this time around for a former Senior Manager at Foxconn — Apple’s largest, Far East iPhone manufacturing partner. Identified only by his given name, Tsai, the man was indicted by a Taiwanese judge Friday morning for his alleged orchestration of perhaps the most large-scale iPhone theft we’ve heard of to date.

What kind of numbers are we talking here, exactly? According to Taiwanese authorities, the gentleman — who formerly worked as a Senior Manager in the device testing department at Foxconn’s Shenzhen, China manufacturing plant — allegedly told as many as eight of his inferiors to “smuggle out” iPhone 5 and 5s test units, according to AppleInsider. The total haul of over 5,700, fully functional iPhones were then sold on the Chinese “black market” for as much as $1.65 million between 2013 and 2014, according to prosecutors.

And, in accordance with Taiwanese law, Mr. Tsai has so far been charged with “breech of trust” — a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

One can only imagine how difficult it must be to work at the actual facility where iPhones are made though, right? I mean, certainly we’ve heard stories about one or two iPhones being stolen by an employee before — but never quote to this magnitude. Still, one can only fathom how tough it must be for an employee so closely involved in Apple’s supply chain to resist getting caught up in the mire of breaking the law over it.

What do you think about Tsai’s million-dollar iPhone theft? Let us know in the comments!