The Escobar Phone Scam Saga Has Finally Come To an End

Olof Kyros Gustafsson, former CEO of Escobar, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges related to the company's phone scam operation. The Department of Justice says Gustafsson took orders for phones branded with Pablo Escobar's likeness but failed to deliver products, instead transferring customer money for personal use.

When customers sought refunds, Gustafsson fraudulently referred payment processors to certificates of ownership as proof of delivery. The phones were Samsung devices with gold stickers. Gustafsson faces up to 20 years in prison and $1.3 million in restitution at his December 5th sentencing.

Who can you trust?

[reanjr]

If you can't trust a company branding itself after a cartel boss, who CAN you even trust?

Re:Who can you trust?

[fahrbot-bot]

If you can't trust a company branding itself after a cartel boss, who CAN you even trust?

Ya, but what if the phones were gold [trumpmobile.com]?
(and apparently made in China [cnn.com], for now anyway)

Re:

[gweihir]

"Trust but verify". One of the very few smart things Ronald Reagan ever said. It does happen to be a Russian proverb though and that is where Reagan got it.

How can you be so stupid?

[gweihir]

This cretin mush have just acted and never thought about the consequences. Because it is absolutely clear how such a scam ends and he is currently experiencing that.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

It also seems like a pretty minor story, he made $1.3M in a scam? That's barely a blip in the radar for what real scammers make.

Re:

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Yeah ok. I guess the scam makes sense now. I thought he might have been able to just keep the scamming to a minimum by selling Samsung with a cool gold sticker, but if he just took all the money and only made 1.3 million, I understand why he didn't stick to the low level scam. He made the right scummy choice. Its incredible that they bothered prosecuting him for 1.3 million.

I want to see who tried to buy one

[DrXym]

These are not people you should trust making important decisions.

Typo, it was actually the Esco-brand bar phone

[sacrilicious]

The Escobar Phone Scam Saga Has Finally Come To an End

It was actually a bar phone sold by Esco. Easy mistake to make. :)