Skip to main content

$1,000 iphone smugglers in Russia

Notable users include President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, billionaire Alexander Mamut and Boris Yeltsin Jr, grandson of the former president, according to the newspaper Kommersant. iPhones are not sold by Cupertino, California-based Apple in Russia and it can’t be used legally on local networks. Still, about 250,000 people own one, more than any other country except the U.S. and China, according to Eldar Murtazin, chief analyst at Moscow-based Mobile Research Group. That popularity has turned into a bonanza for traders who sell the phones in kiosks and on the internet for $1,000 each, more than twice the U.S. price. Hackers say they charge as much as 2,500 rubles ($105) to “unlock’ ’ them so they work locally.


“It’s an icon for Russians,’’ said Timofei Kulikov, a lawyer and buyer of electronic products for X5 Retail Group NV, Russia’s largest supermarket chain. “If you see two businessmen at lunch in Moscow, they’ll both have iPhones on the table.’’
The evolution from web-surfing, touch-screen gadget to status symbol has been a boon for Peter Aloisson. The jeweler sold a diamond-studded iPhone encased in white gold to a Russian businessman in March for 120,000 euros and is working on a 500,000-euros version that may go to another Russian client. “There is no doubt that Russia, when it comes to luxury items, is by far the best marketplace,’’ Aloisson, 47, said last week from his studio in Vienna.
Murtazin says about 20,000 iPhones arrive in Russia each month. “They arrive in suitcases,’’ Murtazin said. “Practically every flight from the US brings new iPhones.’’
“You can basically do whatever you like,’’ said Ivan, 21, after he unlocked an iPhone in a basement office he shares with two friends in one of the capital’s most expensive neighbourhoods. “We’re not liable for anything because officially it’s not here,’’ said Ivan, who declined to give his last name.
Apple, the world’s biggest buyer of flash memory chips, hasn’t said how many of the 4 million iPhones sold were unlocked to work on unauthorized networks. Analysts put the figure at 1 million.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Daniel Bailey has been told to pay up £194,370 by a court. If he fails to hand over the money within six months, he will face a three-year jail term.

Daniel Bailey (35) avoided prison when he received a 26-week suspended sentence after pleading guilty to producing cannabis. But following a separate investigation into his finances by police, he has been told to pay up £194,370 by a court. If he fails to hand over the money within six months, he will face a three-year jail term.During a hearing brought by police under the Proceeds of Crime Act, Lincoln Crown Court was told officers swooped on Bailey's home, near Spalding, on August 5, 2005. They searched the property and found 22 cannabis plants growing among the flowers in his back garden.More cannabis seedlings were discovered in a shed, and two small lumps of the drug were seized in the house.Bailey was subsequently convicted of production of cannabis, which triggered the probe into his financial affairs.The further enquiries showed that in the six years before his arrest, Bailey had claimed incapacity benefit and income support to the tune of more than £21,000, to which he was...
Post a Comment
Read more

Riaz Mohammed, used a string of front companies to ship the highly addictive narcotic from Turkey.

Riaz Mohammed, used a string of front companies to ship the highly addictive narcotic from Turkey.The Court heard the "sophisticated" operation involved hiding half-kilo packages of the Class A substance in the hollowed out struts of wooden pallets. But despite the gang's best efforts each of the three importations - two to Dover docks and one which arrived at Heathrow airport - were intercepted during an investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).Altogether 24kg of the drug - with an estimated street value of £2.3 million - was seized. In the dock with Mohammed, 41, of Lancaster Road, Leytonstone, east London (25 years), were his lieutenant Ibrahim Janturk, 52, from Tottenham, north London (22 years), and "footsoldiers" Cetin Albar, 35, who lived in Clapton Common, east London, and Emircan Aytac, 48, of Boyson Road, Walworth, south-east London, who got 16 years each.Mohammed was convicted by a jury of three counts of conspiracy to import heroin ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Luciano Angrilli the manager at Prewett’s two nightclubs Khrome and Ecstasy has fled

Convicted Sarasota businessman Daniel Prewett of federal drug charges of Trafficking In Cocaine and money laundering charges, Prewtt Ran his cocaine operation out of his "front" an accounting firm at 5777 Beneva Rd Sarasota Fl during regular office hours, Prewett was the "main guy" in the Sarasota Cocaine powder Business. A confidential informant (CI) for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recorded video of a meeting with Sarasota businessman Daniel Prewett about laundering $100,000 in supposed drug money. On the video, Prewett tells the confidential informant to write down his full name on a form. “Felipe,” the informant says. “You know, no full names.”Later on the tape, Luciano Angrilli (his pic, he has fled), the manager at Prewett’s two nightclubs (Khrome and Ecstasy), tells the confidential informant (CI) about the benefits of Costa Rica and laundering the money through a loan. The confidential source then has an undercover agent bring in the $100,000...
Post a Comment
Read more