Three conspirators are fined and imprisoned for stealing Apple's secrets

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In early December, when the original iPad was a hot-selling Christmas gift and the iPad 2 was still a rumor, there appeared on the Internet colorful images of silicone iPad cases that didn't fit the current model. For one thing, they each had a hole in the back that could accommodate a rear-facing camera.

Was it a hoax, a guess or an unauthorized leak? At the time, nobody knew for sure.

Now we know. On Tuesday, a Chinese court announced that it had fined and sentenced three people to prison for conspiring to steal Apple's (AAPL) secret iPad 2 design. According to the official court report issued through a Chinese microblogging service, this is how the deal went down:

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