Despite the recent release rumors and sneak pics for Apple's new Iphone 7 this year, Chinese police recently made up to nine arrests of individuls who are believed to be behind the fake Iphone factory which operated in the guise of a gadget maintenance facility in Beijing.
Fortune.com reported the counterfeiting scheme that put China back in the map for the alleged group, including the married couple pointed as the leaders of the scheme during a raid that was made this May. The fakery was spotted on by US authorities who resorted to alerting Chinese authorities of the counterfeit devices. It was unclear though as to the count of how many of these Iphone copies has already been sold to overseas consumers. Also, the said company was not named in the release statement following this breaking news.
In the same article, China has already been known to produce cheaper first-class copies of other known tech products, making it available to the public. Last 2011, more than 20 fake retail outlets for the Apple brand were raided in the city of Kunming alone; and even working employees in the fake outlets were convinced of being employed by the real thing.
In this regard, China has promised to work with firms to establish trademarking of their products to eradicate the piracy going on between them and other countries, according to a bbc.com article.
A recent update to this report, mentioned in a telegraph.co.uk article, has named 43-year old Yu and his 40-year old wife Xie, both from the Shenzhen province, as the principal suspects behind the raid. About 41, 000 fake Iphone units as well as 66,000 ribbon cables were seized from the factory. The total came in at about £ 12.4 million (120 million yuan). Production lines were found hidden beneath the industrial zone on the outskirts of Beijing.
