They include national football team goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand and taxi driver turned celebrity Sadegh “the hornblower”, who shot to fame in December with his viral dance moves at a local fish market. The celebrities who endorsed Kourosh have faced severe public criticism and calls for them to be held accountable. Others link it to the decades-old US-Iran feud and the push by some in the regime to prohibit any “luxury” American-developed merchandise. Tehran last year introduced a ban on the import of the newest generation of iPhone, making the older models ever more prized.Īnalysts cite various explanations, from the new models’ capability to connect directly to Starlink satellites to the squeeze on foreign currency reserves already strained by the sanctions. “Still getting an Apple ID or downloading apps and games is a huge hassle, and costly too.”Īpple restricts services in Iran, but tech-savvy users have found innovative ways to sidestep the restrictions, from using a foreign address to secure an Apple ID to buying gift cards to purchase apps and games. My friends cut down on their expenses to save up for an iPhone,” said Farzad, a 28-year-old property agent. The devices are coveted by many in Iran despite the high price that consumers with deteriorating purchasing power must pay for technology. The equivalent of about $1bn worth of iPhones have been imported into Iran over the past 10 months, the Tasnim news agency reported, mostly from elsewhere in the Middle East and Asia. Iranian police now say they have located the 27-year-old, without revealing where, but that he would be extradited through Interpol. Sharifian could not be reached for comment, but said in a YouTube channel phone interview this month that he owed his clients only about $2.7mn.Īpple iPhones can be purchased at stores across Iran, although they have to be brought into the country individually or in batches because the California technology giant does not do business there in compliance with US sanctions. It dawned on them eventually that they had been scammed.ĭomestic media has reported that the phone fraud could have netted the equivalent of about $35mn, but no official figure has been given.Īs the scale of the phone con became clearer and angry customers began to picket Tehran police headquarters demanding action against Kourosh, it emerged that the owner Sharifian had left Iran several months ago. The company, run by entrepreneur Amir Hossein Sharifian, used high-profile endorsements to drive sales, with Iranian sports figures and other celebrities using their star power to lure in thousands of victims, many of them young people who dreamt of owning the latest Apple gadget.īut after most would-be buyers had parted with their money and waited the required 45 days for delivery, the iPhones never arrived. Kourosh Company, based in Tehran, was for months offering half-price deals on iPhones that sell for the equivalent of about $700, arguing that it saved money securing them by eliminating costly middlemen. Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Ī multimillion-dollar fraud involving heavily discounted Apple iPhones has left thousands of people in Iran out of pocket, and revealed the lengths to which its consumers will go to get their hands on the prized mobile device.
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