HUFFINGTON
07.28.13
THE BIG STEAL
two brothers, Henry and Victor
Gamboa, drove thousands of stolen phones and other electronics by truck from the Bay Area to
Mexico every two weeks, Santos
said. The two brothers are now
in jail after being convicted of
running a massive stolen electronics fencing ring.
Thuc Ngo told Sprint’s lawyers
that he smuggled iPhones from
California to his native Vietnam,
where his siblings helped him find
buyers, according to a deposition
from a Sprint lawsuit against him.
Ngo said he obtained phones
through his business, which he
called “Tony Buy iPhone.” He
drove a white Dodge Ram 3500
van emblazoned with an advertisement — “We Buy Used
Iphone” — listing his phone
number and website, the lawsuit
claims. He met customers at Starbucks coffee shops around the
Bay Area and paid between $220
and $330 for each iPhone. Some
of the iPhones had been reported
stolen, he confessed, according to
his deposition.
He regularly flew to Vietnam
to sell his inventory, stuffing the
phones in his pockets and strapping them to his waist beneath
his clothing with plastic wrap — a
One ad read: “Buying Apple
iPhone 4S!! Must Be Brand
New!!..Will Buy any Quantity!!”
Another read: “Ace Will Buy
Your Smartphone For Top
Dollar!!!!!!!”
technique he used to bypass Vietnamese customs at the airport
and avoid paying taxes, the deposition says. In this way, he carried
11 iPhones at a time.
“That’s the most I can hide
on my body,” he said, the deposition notes.
And yet it was never enough.
“Every time I was there, people
would tell me, ‘Oh, next time, I
want such and such phone and if
you come back, you know, sell it
to me,’” he said.
Earlier this year, a judge in San
Francisco barred Ngo from buying
and selling phones manufactured
for use on Sprint’s network. Ngo
could not be reached for comment.
A ‘SECRETIVE’ STOREFRONT
Ace Wholesale acquired phones
by advertising on Craigslist
and websites like thewirelessbuzz.com and wirelessdealers.