Apple Bought Its Own Parts — and Lost $17 Million

A box of components leaves an Apple warehouse in Nevada. It goes to an outside company, comes back in different packaging, with an invoice. And Apple pays. For parts it already owned. For seven years, an Apple buyer and two outside vendors ran a series of schemes — kickbacks, inflated invoices, purchases that were never delivered, and a loop that made Apple buy its own components back. Prosecutors say he knew how Apple's fraud detection worked. It cost Apple more than $17 million. Apple was the victim. Dhirendra Prasad pleaded guilty in November 2022 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, and was sentenced in April 2023 to three years in prison. Vendor owners Don M. Baker (CTrends) and Robert Gary Hansen (Quality Electronics Distributors) admitted their involvement in separate federal cases. How the scheme was first detected has not been made public. Hidden failures behind the world's biggest companies — the Info404 files. Subscribe for the next one. #Apple #Fraud #TrueCrime #Documentary #Business