HUFFINGTON
07.28.13
THE BIG STEAL
B2BCFO/YOUTUBE
crime element to the city.”
Dozens of other companies
around the country have played a
similar role, Sprint says.
Sprint’s investigators discovered hundreds of stolen iPhones
stored in a suburban Baltimore
warehouse owned by a company
called Wireless Buybacks, according to a lawsuit Sprint filed
against the company in February.
Wireless Buybacks says it buys
used phones and resells them to
large retailers, which in turn issue them to customers who have
insurance policies and need a replacement phone.
In its lawsuit, Sprint claims that
a company associated with Wireless Buybacks tried to sell 800
iPhones to its undercover investigator for more than $400,000. A
sample of serial numbers revealed
that “the vast majority” of phones
were stolen or obtained through
fraud, the suit says.
In February, agents from the FBI,
the Secret Service and the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
raided Wireless Buybacks’ warehouse in Elkridge, Md., and found
the facility was being used to store
stolen phones, according to Sprint.
Law enforcement declined to comment about the raid, citing an ongoing investigation.
In court documents, Wireless Buybacks said it “does not
knowingly transact business with
anyone involved in burglaries or
Wireless
Buybacks cofounder Kevin
Lowe denies
allegations
that his
compa