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A Redwood City brother-and-sister duo is headed to prison after United States prosecutors said the siblings resold more than 800 Apple MacBooks they had stolen from Stanford University, according to a statement from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
Patricia Castaneda, 38, was sentenced to 33 months in prison, and her brother, Eric Castaneda, 37, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for their roles in the decade-long scheme involving the theft and interstate sale of MacBooks for personal gain, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced on Monday.
Patricia and her brother were also ordered by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to pay millions in restitution—in the amounts of $4,077,832 and $2,283,155, respectively.
Beginning in 2009 or 2010, Patricia, who worked in Stanford University's School of Humanities and Sciences, stole MacBooks she ordered for faculty and staff and sold them for cash. Initially, the computers were sold to an individual she met on Craigslist. Around February 2016, Patricia began giving the stolen MacBooks to Eric to sell to an individual named Philip James who, in turn, resold and shipped them to buyers outside California.
In total, Patricia stole over $4 million in MacBooks from the university, including approximately 800 laptops—worth around $2.3 million—that Eric sold to James. James, a Folsom resident, pleaded guilty to selling stolen MacBooks in a separate case earlier this month.
The pair pleaded guilty to the charges last March, according to reporting by the Palo Alto Weekly. Patricia pleaded guilty to one count of federal program theft. Her brother pleaded to conspiracy to transport property interstate.
This case was a product of an investigation by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Thuesen prosecuted the case.
