CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte businessman was sentenced on Monday for selling stolen and fraudulently obtained iPhones and other electronics to buyers overseas, according to U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Dena J. King.
Prosecutors said Rami Mahmod Mhana, 46, bought thousands of brand-new Apple iPhones and other electronics that were stolen and fraudulently obtained and then sold and shipped the iPhones to the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong.
Mhana was the owner of multiple business in Charlotte. He ran Wireless City Fashions Inc. and Protocol Business Group Inc. He also owned multiple Boost mobile stores in the area.
The scheme ran from at least May 2017 through October 2019.
A federal jury convicted Mhana of conspiracy, international transportation of stolen goods and money laundering in May 2023.
On Monday, he was sentenced to almost six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Court records show Mhana got most of the electronic devices from multiple local “boosters.” A booster is a person who steals products and sells them for profit, U.S. Attorney King explained.
"Mhana’s store on Bradford Drive was known to local boosters as a place they could sell stolen devices for cash with no questions asked. In fact, as trial evidence established, Mhana provided his employees with a pricelist of how much they should pay for certain new model iPhones and other electronic devices, which was significantly less than retail value of the devices," a spokesperson for King's office said on Monday.
The court ordered Mhana to pay $3,649,033 to the victims of the fraud scheme. It also ordered him to forfeit $229,118 and more than 100 new iPhones seized during the investigation.
In a separate case, two Charlotte businessmen were sentenced to prison in August 2023, for orchestrating a similar scheme.
Both cases were the result of the investigative efforts of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the Secret Service.