News Releases and Statements
News Releases and Statements
34-year-old Roberto Craciunica, a Romanian man believed to be residing in Germany, was indicted in October 2015 in the Eastern District of Virginia for a variety of charges related to manufacturing and distributing counterfeit badges, including trafficking in counterfeit goods; smuggling; and possession, sale or transportation of false seals. Interpol has also issued a Red Notice for Craciunica’s arrest.
IPR Center leadership and representatives from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and FBI held a roundtable discussion last month with staff from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), a joint advertising industry initiative to fight crime in the digital ad supply chain, to review priorities, set common goals and objectives and determine opportunities for successful collaboration.
Jeffrey Scott Patterson, 52, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court. In his plea agreement and during his Monday court appearance, Patterson admitted that, over the course of approximately eight years, he used two websites to advertise and sell counterfeit Adobe software at prices below retail.
The international collaboration was part of Operation Team Player, an ongoing effort targeting the illegal importation of counterfeit sports-related merchandise, which culminated last month in San Francisco, California, ahead of Super Bowl 50.
Ameri-Source International Inc., Ameri-Source Specialty Products Inc., Ameri-Source Holdings Inc., owned by Ajay Goel and Thomas Diener, and a related import company, SMC Machining LLC, incorporated at Goel’s direction and formerly owned by his wife, imported small-diameter graphite electrodes from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These devices are columns of synthetic graphite with diameters of around 16 inches or less which are used as fuel in electric arc and ladle furnaces, such as those used in steel manufacturing.
Yahya Jawad, 57, from Binghamton, New York, was sentenced following a Sept. 29 plea agreement to one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods.
Ernesto Leyva, 27, of Lincoln, Nebraska, formerly of Miami, Florida, was sentenced to 15 months in prison on one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and transport stolen goods.
All the counterfeit items were seized in Denver’s Civic Center Park area Feb. 9 from 15 vendors; no arrests were made. The seizures consisted of T-shirts, jerseys and beanies with Broncos trademarks as well as Super Bowl 50 trademarks.
The results from Operation Team Player, an ongoing effort developed by the HSI-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) to crackdown on the illegal importation of counterfeit sports apparel and merchandise, were revealed at a press conference hosted by the NFL with participation from ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Bay-area law-enforcement agencies.
Junaid Qadir, 33, of Karachi, Pakistan, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver Aug. 22, 2012. A superseding indictment was obtained June 25, 2015. He was arrested last spring after he traveled from Pakistan to Germany, which has U.S. extradition laws.
The seized items were packaged to appear genuine and were sold at the same price point as legitimate goods. According to experts, such high quality counterfeit items suggest they were likely made using commercial grade equipment. Experts from the RIAA accompanied HSI special agents as on-scene subject matter experts.
Micky Punjabi, 36, and his brother Hitesh Punjabi, 33, both of Peabody, Massachusetts, were charged with conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, specifically iPhone components that bore Apple trademarks but were not genuine Apple products.
Haryash Paul, 64, of Hicksville, New York, who operates Manhattan-based Glamour Line Inc. and is associated with a Jericho-based business known as TRB Designs and Resources Inc, is accused of smuggling counterfeit North Face merchandise with a value in excess of $2 million.
Rex Yang, 37, of Seattle, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays Dec. 16 to a federal information that charged him with participating in a criminal conspiracy from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 10, 2014.
Randy Lynn Hastings, 59, is charged with two counts of tax violation, two counts of tax evasion and five counts of trademark counterfeiting.
ICE involves itself in hoax and scam prevention through its enforcement actions and by educating the public on risks.
“This effort highlights the global commitment to take aggressive action against online piracy,” said IPR Center Director Bruce Foucart. “The IPR Center will continue to collaborate with international law enforcement and industry to protect consumers from purchasing counterfeit goods online, which could expose sensitive financial information and present a health and safety threat.”
Su Qin Yang, 45, who resided in Rosemead prior to fleeing to China in 2012, pleaded guilty in May to one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods and admitted in her plea agreement that she trafficked in almost four million counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes and almost 4,000 counterfeit Viagra pills.
Counterfeit electronics that overheat due to improper manufacture, fake bicycle helmets that break upon impact and phony cosmetics that lead to skin ailments are just a few examples of knock-off items sold online that present a serious health and safety risk. Seasonal items like holiday lights can also be counterfeit, poorly wired and ignite fires.
Rocky P. Ouprasith, 23, was also sentenced to two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $45,288.62, and forfeit $50,851.05. He is the first cyberlocker operator in the U.S. to receive a criminal copyright infringement sentence.
Lumber Liquidators was charged earlier this month in the Eastern District of Virginia with one felony count of importing goods through false statements and four misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to import timber that was taken in violation of the laws of a foreign country and to transport falsely-labeled timber across international borders into the United States.
Le Fu Chen, aka Tom Chen, aka Danny Chen, 40 and Hai Fan Huang, aka Cindy Haung, 36, of Roslyn Heights, New York are each charged with one count of conspiring to traffic counterfeit goods, and one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods. The married couple allegedly intended to distribute and sell the counterfeit products to retailers in Manhattan and elsewhere.
The operation, which is coordinated through the HSI-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), has resulted in the seizure of over 20,000 pairs of counterfeit and decorative contact lenses.
The conference brought together brand protection leaders from industry, academia and law enforcement to discuss ground-breaking research from world-renowned scholars, field-driven insight from globally-recognized organizations in both the private and public sector and current and emerging challenges and strategies in the area of intellectual property rights.
Evan Patterson, 31, from Grand Prairie, Texas, remains on bond after he pleaded guilty Oct. 13 to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods.
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