A smartphone that many customers would have wanted to buy, but that did not exist. This is the story of Escobar Fold, which ends in justice. The thief in its origin, Olof Kyros Gustafsson, declared himself guilty of six positions, as indicated by the United States Ministry of Justice in a statement.
It all started in 2019, when the company Escobar Inc., which used the image of the famous drug trafficking Pablo Escobar to market products that are called the general public, launched the first Escobar phone. Other products were also a flame launcher Escobar or a smart phone Escobar Gold 11 Pro.
Actually, Olof Kyros Gustafsson, who was his CEO, believed that existing products in the market were designed by Escobar Inc. and sold “at a significantly lower price” compared to competition.
Dangers of folded disguised
In the case of the Escobar fold, the first version was actually a Flexpai Kingole disguised marketed in $ 350. And the second was actually a Samsung Galaxy fold offered to $ 400. Olof Kyros Gustafsson even sent these alleged smartphones to influential people specialized in technologies to encourage victims who consult their opinions to buy them.
The YouTubeur Marques Brownlee, who was part of him, revealed the deception in a video published in 2020. He explained that he had bought Escobar Fold 1, but he had never received it. And when the Escobar Fold 2 was given, he realized that it was a fold of Samsung Galaxy.
Like the YouTubeur, several of the people who have paid for these folding smartphones never received them because they did not exist. “Instead of sending products to customers, Gufstafson sent them a certificate of property, a book or other promotional documents of Escobar Inc., to maintain a trace of the company’s postal shipments to the client,” said the United States Ministry of Justice.
And when one of the buyers tried to obtain a refund, the Crook returned the payment process to the proof of sending the property certificate or other document. This led to rejection of reimbursement requests, because the sending of these documents showed not only that a product had been sent, but also that the customer had received it.
Olof Kyros Gustafsson also had open bank accounts in his name and with entities that he controlled to use them as transfer accounts. In other words, he deposited there and withdrew the money from his illegal activities, these accounts allow him to hide the nature, location or source of these recipes.
After declaring himself guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each fraud position and up to 10 years in prison for each accusation of money laundering, or 120 years in total. He will be fixed at his destination on December 5.
Source: BFM TV
