UC Berkeley worker convicted of stealing Apple MacBooks he sold to Sacramento County buyer
A data administrator at the University of California, Berkeley has been convicted of stealing more than $200,000 worth of Apple MacBooks he purchased for faculty and staff and selling the computers to a buyer in Sacramento County.
Jonas Jarut, 41, of Emeryville, on Monday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport stolen property interstate, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.
The news release indicated that Jarut worked as a database administrator in the Graduate School of Education at a public university in Berkeley. The university also is identified this way in court documents filed in U.S. District Court Eastern District of California.
The FBI Sacramento Office, which investigated Jarut, said the convicted man was a UC Berkeley database administrator. Jarut also is listed as an employee in data administration in the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education staff list.
Federal prosecutors said Jarut’s job duties included purchasing Apple MacBooks for the graduate school. Beginning in March 2019, Jarut began stealing MacBooks from the graduate school and selling them for cash to a buyer in Folsom, according to the news release.
Jarut could buy MacBooks from Apple directly through an online portal and could buy Apple products for under $5,000 without needing approval from the university, according to a plea agreement filed in court Monday.
Jarut also could use a university-issued credit card to buy Apple products, and he didn’t need approval if the purchases were under $20,000 a month, prosecutors said. Jarut “falsely represented” he was purchasing the MacBooks for faculty and staff and stole them from the campus “for his own personal gain,” according to the plea agreement.
He initially sold the stolen MacBooks through Craigslist to a buyer from Folsom, who is only identified in court documents as “Co-conspirator 1.” It’s unclear whether authorities have identified the Folsom buyer.
Jarut later agreed to bypass Craigslist and sell the stolen MacBooks, which were still in their original packaging, directly to the Folsom buyer, arranging sales and agreeing to prices through an exchange of text messages, according to the plea agreement. Jarut agreed to sell the stolen MacBooks to the Folsom buyer for about $1,800 each, according to text messages prosecutors submitted as evidence.
Prosecutors said the Folsom buyer then sold some of the stolen MacBooks and shipped the laptops to buyers outside California.
Through June of this year, Jarut sold at least 90 stolen MacBooks to the Folsom buyer, costing the university about $209,000. In his plea agreement, Jarut agreed to pay $209,000 in restitution to the university.
Prosecutors charged Jarut with the computer theft conspiracy Dec. 3, and he pleaded guilty to the charge two weeks later in federal court. As part of his plea agreement, Jarut must fully cooperate with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and attend any court hearings as ordered by prosecutors.
Jarut is scheduled to return to federal court June 14 for a status conference regarding his sentencing. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
This case against Jarut was the result of an investigation by the IRS and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Thuesen is prosecuting the case.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 1:40 PM.
