2 men sentenced in $1.5 million Apple gift card scheme
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Two men behind a $1.5 million Apple gift card scheme have been sentenced to a combined 13 years in federal prison.
Syed Ali, 29, and Jason Tout-Puissant, 27, both pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2019.
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham said Ali was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and Tout-Puissant was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.26 million in restitution to Apple.
According to plea papers, Tout-Puissant admitted that he stole multiple devices from the Apple store in Southlake, then logged onto the store's WiFi network from outside, and loaded thousands of dollars of fraudulent store credits onto gift cards.
Meacham said Tout-Puissant then loaded the gift cards onto Apple Passbook—an application that generates QR codes for the value of gift cards—and sent screenshots of those codes to Ali.
Ali admitted in his plea papers that he and an unindicted coconspirator used the QR codes to purchase Apple products from brick-and-mortar retail stores in New York.
The conspiracy reportedly involved over $1.5 million in fraudulently obtained Apple gift cards.