Man Pleads Guilty To Selling Nearly 1,000 Apple MacBooks Stolen From Cal, Stanford

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) – A Sacramento County man has pleaded guilty to a scheme involving selling nearly 1,000 stolen Apple MacBook laptop computers, federal prosecutors said.

According to U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert's office, 35-year-old Philip James of Folsom entered a guilty plea Monday to transporting stolen property interstate.

Court documents said that James purchased almost 1,000 stolen laptops from at least four people between October 2015 and June 2020. The laptops would generally be sold to buyers out of state.

Prosecutors said James purchased at least 100 stolen laptops from Cory Beck, who worked in the IT department of an electric car and clean energy company based in Palo Alto.

Also involved in the scheme were siblings Patricia Castaneda of San Carlos and Eric Castaneda of Redwood City. Prosecutors said Patricia Castaneda, who worked at Stanford University, stole $4 million in MacBook computers from the school and gave them to his brother, who sold them to James.

Court documents said James purchased at least 800 laptops from Eric Castaneda.

Prosecutors said James also purchased 90 stolen laptops from Jonas Jarut, who worked as a database administrator in the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley. Jarut, Beck, and the Castaneda siblings have all pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said James has agreed to pay over $2.28 million in restitution to Stanford, $209,057 to UC Berkeley and $256,485 to the clean energy company.

James faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 25.