Apple had a chance to reclaim the phone when the finder tried to return it, but they wouldn’t have it.
That may be the one thing that "saves" this particular guy (the one who found it and then sold it) from any criminal charges. But, it won't save the guy who bought it.
The problem there, with the guy who tried to return it -- is that he apparently got a hold of someone who didn't know what they were talking about ... LOL ... (which is good news for the guy who found it).
HOWEVER, Apple did tell the reporter that they wanted it back. And before the original guy who found it could do anything with the iPhone prototype, Apple had wiped it clean so there was nothing on it, so obviously Apple didn't want it to get out, or else they would have left that on there.
And so, when Apple became aware of the reporter having it (and that got to the people "in the know" as you can imagine ... LOL ...) -- Apple wanted it back, for sure. :-) ...
Apple got exaactly what they wanted: 10 million bucks worth of publicity for free.
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I’m guessing that they’ll offer the “finder” a deal of some kind, plead down to a misdemeanor. But he sure demonstrted mens rea by running around and trying to find a buyer, and selling the thing for 5K. Heck, if he really wanted it returned to the rightful owner, he could have just dropped it off at the local PD and filed a found property report.