Need lawyer's advice

[Chukr91]

Hello. I need advice. "My best friend" bought iphones from online shop and then resell it on ebay and it's ok but now "my best friend" suddenly realize that this online shop is carder's shop and all products they sell they buy with stolen credit cards numbers.
He sell it during 3 month and now of course he don't sell it.
So my question is - will my friend have troubles with police or FBI?
Sorry for my English.

 

[Weaselboy]

If he honestly did not know the items were stolen, or bought with stolen card numbers, when he bought the phones, your friend has not committed a crime. For this to be a crime, your friend would have to know or reasonable have known the items were stolen.

That said, if your friend is contacted by the police about this, he should have a lawyer present before answering any questions.

I am describing how the law works in the US, so cannot be sure about your country. But what I described is how the stolen property laws work in every country I know of.

Your English is actually pretty good.

 

[JackRoch]

If he honestly did not know the items were stolen, or bought with stolen card numbers, when he bought the phones, your friend has not committed a crime. For this to be a crime, your friend would have to know or reasonable have known the items were stolen.

That said, if your friend is contacted by the police about this, he should have a lawyer present before answering any questions.

I am describing how the law works in the US, so cannot be sure about your country. But what I described is how the stolen property laws work in every country I know of.

Your English is actually pretty good.

I’m pretty sure that advice would hold good for the UK too.

However, even though the police might accept you acted in good faith and therefore hadn’t committed an offence, you would still be regarded as being “in receipt of stolen goods” so any remaining phones would have to be handed over to the police.
Even you gave them away to family, friends, I think they would regard you as “handling stolen goods’.
So it would be impossible to dispose of them legally.

A situation that sometimes seems a bit unfair; occasionally we hear stories on TV of people who have bought a car only to later find it had been stolen earlier in its history. So rightly, the car goes back to the original owner but none of the subsequent owners get any reimbursement.

 

[theluggage]

So my question is - will my friend have troubles with police or FBI?
Sorry for my English.

I think that if "your friend" is worried then they should go and talk with an actual (non-internet) lawyer. Then they can have a chat that is guaranteed to be confidential - so "your friend" can safely tell lawyer any little details that they haven't shared with you.

All you will get here is well-meaning advice from non-lawyers who don't know all the facts. It might even be correct, but how would you know?

Also, write out 100 times "if a deal sounds too good to be true then its probably not true" and next time ask why a shop would be selling phones so cheaply that your friend could make a profit re-selling them on eBay...

 

[Weaselboy]

However, even though the police might accept you acted in good faith and therefore hadn’t committed an offence, you would still be regarded as being “in receipt of stolen goods” so any remaining phones would have to be handed over to the police.

Maybe... it depends on the law in the jurisdiction where this occurred. Google "bona fide purchaser for value" for some boring articles. The concept is if you bought something under circumstances where one would not reasonably think it was stolen and paid fair market value, you may be able to keep the property and the original owner would have to make a civil claim against the person who sold it to you to make any recovery.

 

[JackRoch]

Maybe... it depends on the law in the jurisdiction where this occurred. Google "bona fide purchaser for value" for some boring articles. The concept is if you bought something under circumstances where one would not reasonably think it was stolen and paid fair market value, you may be able to keep the property and the original owner would have to make a civil claim against the person who sold it to you to make any recovery.

I'm sure you're right about other jurisdictions. I was really only quoting anecdotally from UK media. Here, goods seem to automatically get hoovered up as part of the investigation process and returned to the original owner.

Although I used the word 'unfair' in my earlier post I guess I just meant it's hard not to feel sympathy for people further down the chain – who may well have paid nearer to market value (tho' still a bargain price) – so had no hint that the deal might be 'too good to be true'.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you need "legal advice", see a lawyer.
You won't find much of it on here.