Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Last week, this developer, Bogdan Popescu, wrote a blog post saying that Apple had accused him of writing fake reviews, banned him and up and deleted his account without warning.
Popescu wrote that he never wrote fake reviews. The story blew up and developers, who loved his app, supported him and were angry at Apple.
On Monday, Apple appeared to explain what happened. It sent out a statement to various news sites, including Business Insider, that implied the developer was lying by saying that Apple had found 1,000 fake reviews across two accounts and 25 apps "for this developer."
Apple insisted that it had warned the developer well in advance and tried to work with him before banning him.
But Popescu has just responded to Apple with what he says really went down.
He says he helped a relative open an Apple developer account by paying with his own credit card and then giving that person some old test equipment. Apple, unknown to him, noticed the same credit card and testing equipment and linked the accounts, Popescu says.
It was this second linked account that was apparently involved with the fake reviews, not the main account that Popescu had been using for years to publish and support Dash.
When Apple banned the developer and booted him off the App Store, it shut down all the accounts it had linked to him. Popescu writes:
"I was not aware my account was linked to another until Apple contacted me Friday, 2 days after closing my account. I was never notified of any kind of wrongdoing before my account was terminated"
After the initial story of his getting banned by Apple went viral, he was in contact with Apple last Friday, he writes:
"They told me they'd reactivate my account if I'd make a blog post admitting some wrongdoing. I told them I can't do that, because I did nothing wrong. On Saturday they told me that they are fine with me writing the truth about what happened, and that if I did that, my account would be restored. Saturday night I sent a blog post draft to Apple and have since waited for their approval.
"Tonight Apple decided to accuse me of manipulating the App Store in public via a spokesperson."
Popescu posted a recording of the conversation between the Apple rep and himself telling him what to write in a blog post.
The Apple rep also mentions Apple's vice president of marketing Phil Schiller, explaining:
"He's upset about this and he wants to make it right for you and for Apple. He wants to make it clear that we didn't make a mistake here, right? We're confident in the investigations that we did that there was fraud. It wasn't on your direct account, it was on a linked account. We did provide warnings to that account and we turned them off."
The only problem is, according to this latest account, Apple did make a mistake. Based on this recording, it sounds like Apple didn't send warnings to both of the accounts before it terminated both of them.
Apple could not be reached for comment on this blog post.