17 year-old Fei Lam is now in Apple's crosshairs for his WhiteiPhone4Now.com website, where he sold white iPhone 4 kits. A private investigator by the name of Jimmy Robbins was looking into Fei and his business, which generated about $139,500 in the last three months. We speculated that this investigator was probably hired by Apple, and it turns out this was correct.
Lam's attorney, Andrew Jaffe, told the The New York Observer that Robbins was indeed working for Apple. We say "was" because Robbins informed Jaffe that he was off the case and that Apple was handling it personally. "Now we're just waiting to hear from them officially," said Jaffe.
The New Yorker ordered white iPhone 4 parts directly from a contact at Foxconn, a factory complex in China responsible for building Apple products among other things, put his own conversion kits together, and sold them for $279 each. Lam has had a surge in traffic since his story got out around the world earlier this week and we wouldn't be surprised if he's unable to keep up with the demand. On the other hand, if Apple manages to get Lam convicted, he could end up with fines and possibly even jail-time.