[jamesk_au]

In telling the other side of the story, the Dash developer published his (apparently secret) recording of a 7-minute long telephone call he had with a person at Apple who purports to be speaking on behalf of Phil Schiller.[1]

Leaving aside whatever inferences might be drawn from the fact that the developer saw fit to record and publish the recording in the first place, here's a brief summary of what was said:

- There was at least one other developer account "linked" to the Dash developer account. In this context, "linked" means that the accounts "shared the same details": they were enrolled in the Apple Developer Program "with the same credit card number", and "used the same test devices".

- Apple says that at least one of those other developer accounts "definitely had fraudulent activity": "It was not your direct account but it was a linked account." Warnings about fraudulent activity were sent to the linked account. No warnings were sent to the Dash account.

- The Dash developer asked: "Why didn't you notify me beforehand though, and let me know that an account that's linked to mine is doing fraudulent activity, so I can do something about it?" The answer is "because they were linked"; "we see them as the same entity". "If we have accounts that have enrolled in our program using the same credit card, they are the same legal entity; they are the same." So Apple believed they had notified the Dash developer because Apple believed the same person was behind the linked accounts. (Prudence would dictate notifying all accounts at risk of termination; we'll see what happens in future.)

- Apple's position is that no mistakes were made. The Dash developer account was linked to an account with fraudulent activity based on the facts known to Apple.

- The Dash developer says (in his blog post) that he "helped a relative get started by paying for her Apple's Developer Program Membership using my credit card" and "handed her test hardware that I no longer needed".

- Apple says they are "working with" the Dash developer to "unlink the accounts", which (I speculate) may involve some attempt to verify the Dash developer's claim that the linked account was used only by a relative and not by him. If the accounts are unlinked, there would be no reason for the Dash account to remain closed.

[1] https://blog.kapeli.com/dash-and-apple-my-side-of-the-story

[Hadi_Asiaie]

In one part of the conversation, they mentioned that the accounts used the same bank account(Not only credit card). I assume it means the bank account that the developers is get paid with. That's even more convincing that accounts were linked. Note that you can use "arbitrary" bank accounts to get paid with(Source: I'm an apple developer.)

Also The apple guy said it uses same test devices. As usual the devil is in details, it's important if they still uses the same devices and in what extent.

[nodamage]

If both developer accounts were using the same bank account to receive Apple's payments, and that bank account was owned by the Dash developer, then I think it's entirely reasonable on Apple's part to conclude that the same developer was effectively in control of both accounts. And it would also imply that the Dash developer was effectively profiting from the fradulent activity occurring in the other account.