Restaurant worker admits $326K multi-state scheme to steal iPads from WA Target stores

A Chinese citizen who worked with his girlfriend to “return” 140 counterfeit iPads to Tri-Cities Target stores and others in the West has been sentenced in federal court.

Zhangbo Liang, 24, was sentenced Monday by Judge Rebecca Pennell in the Spokane U.S. Courthouse to one year incarceration.

He and his girlfriend, Linda You, obtained fraudulent refunds of $163,000 in a multi-state scheme to buy iPads and then return counterfeits repackaged in the original boxes to Target stores, including those in Kennewick, Richland and Yakima.

The refunds were given as gift cards, which were then used to buy additional items from Target stores, including more iPads to be replaced with counterfeits for more returns.

“The defendant manipulated weaknesses in the retail return system to steal high-value electronics, defrauding not only a major corporation but also the consumers who ultimately shoulder the cost,” said Matthew Murphy, Seattle acting special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations.

Liang will be credited on his federal sentence for time served on a state sentence of 150 days after he was caught passing off a counterfeit iPad as a real one when he tried to return it to a Target store in Western Washington. He pleaded guilty in exchange for some of the charges being dropped.

He also will be responsible under the federal court sentence for repaying $326,000, the amount that Target lost in the theft conspiracy.

Liang, of Fuzhou City, China, likely will be deported when he finishes his sentence and, given the current political climate, he may be deported to a country other than the China, said his attorneys in court documents.

He was represented by Todd Henry of Philadelphia and Randy Jameson of Richland.

Tri-Cities Target stores

According to court documents:

▪ On June 14, 2024, Liang returned two counterfeit iPads to a Target in Yakima. Their boxes were from iPads bought two hours earlier at the Richland Target with gift cards. The Yakima Target gave him two gift cards totaling nearly $2,400.

▪ On June 19, 2024, Liang returned two counterfeit iPads to the Kennewick Target in boxes that had held iPads bought two days earlier using gift cards in Los Angeles, according to court documents. He received gift cards for more than $2,600.

▪ On June 21, 2024, he went to the Target store in Richland to return two more counterfeit iPads in boxes that had held an iPad bought the same day in Bozeman, Mont., and another one bought three days earlier in Huntington Park, Calif.

Both had been purchased using gift cards, and Liang received gift cards from the Richland store worth more than $2,400.

In all, Liang and You received gift cards worth $163,000 but the loss to Target was larger because the store lost the authentic iPads and the purchase price which was reimbursed on gift cards.

Liang came to the United States in 2020 and had been sporadically working at restaurants, said court records.

Target fraud started in 2023

In the summer of 2023, he was approached by a friend who proposed the iPad scheme, according to a court document.

At first Liang just used gift cards to make purchases from Target that would be given to another person, according to his attorneys. But by the end of 2023 he was returning counterfeit iPads to Target.

Liang’s attorneys said in a court document that Liang, who had no previous criminal history, rationalized the conspiracy as a crime with no victims.

“He has since realized that there are no victimless crimes and that this type of crime impacts every-day people,” his attorneys said in court documents.

He was caught after police were dispatched to a Target in Skagit Count for a suspected fraudulent return of two iPads, June 22, 2024, one day after he was given gift cards from the Richland Target.

Liang had left the Western Washington store when police arrived, but he was detained when he returned to the same store for an attempted fraudulent return of two more counterfeit iPads later that day.

“Mr. Liang participated in a calculated scheme that exploited retail return systems for substantial personal gain, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Richard R. Barker. “This type of fraud undermines the integrity of commerce and ultimately affects everyday consumers by raising prices for everyone.”

You, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit access device fraud, is schedule to be sentenced June 23 at the Spokane U.S. Courthouse.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy J. Kelley.

This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 10:16 AM.