Apple has launched an investigation into managers at Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, who are suspected of mass fraud. They sold iPhones assembled from defective components and earned tens of millions of dollars in three years.

It is reported that a Taiwanese businessman conspired with the managers of the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou. They sold the defective components to an entrepreneur, who then assembled smartphones from them to sell them under the guise of new iPhones to unsuspecting buyers. Over the past three years, the fraudulent scheme has brought the businessman and his accomplices $ 43 million. When the deception was exposed, Foxconn reported it to Apple, which launched an official investigation. It is conducted by Apple’s audit team, which reports directly to the company’s board of directors, headed by Tim Cook.

It is worth noting that iPhones have been the target of major scams more than once. Earlier in 2019, it became known that two Chinese students cheated Apple for almost a million dollars by replacing fake iPhones under warranty. A similar scheme involving at least 14 people was unveiled in the US in November. By exchanging more than 10 counterfeit iPhones and iPads under warranty and then selling them in China, the criminals received about $ 6 million. But the Foxconn scam seems to dwarf any other scam.