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February 12, 2021
|Covid-19
The criminal complaint was filed on February 9, 2021 and was unsealed today upon the defendants’ arrests. Charged in the criminal complaint are: Olakitan Oluwalade (“Olaki”), age 22, of Windsor Mill, Maryland; Olaki’s cousin, Odunayo Baba Oluwalade (“Baba”), age 25, of Windsor Mill; and Kelly Lamont Williams, age 22, of Owings Mills, Maryland.
February 10, 2021
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
HSI special agents and CBP officers conducted joint enforcement operations from Jan. 22 through Feb. 5 and seized counterfeit merchandise in various locations in El Paso County, including an Eastside parking lot, a Lower Valley business, and a Horizon City residence.
February 3, 2021
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
|
HSI announced Wednesday, the seizure of more than 169,000 counterfeit sports-related items over the past year, worth an estimated $45 million. This announcement was made during a joint press conference in Tampa with the National Football League (NFL), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Tampa Police Department (TPD).
January 29, 2021
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) will join federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to provide essential public safety efforts in and around the Tampa Bay area for Super Bowl LV. HSI personnel will be on the front lines of the interagency effort to mitigate the threat posed by criminal organizations seeking to exploit and profit from criminal activity through the identification and seizure of counterfeit goods and enhanced efforts to combat human trafficking.
January 19, 2021
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Orlando seized 284 counterfeit “sports championship rings” from “Friendly Confines Collectibles,” a sports memorabilia store located in Oviedo, Florida, Jan. 14, 2021. The HSI investigation was supported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
January 12, 2021
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
The IPR Center’s partnership with IACC provides a framework to enhance investigative efforts into intellectual property crime through joint events, law enforcement training, community outreach and information sharing.
January 12, 2021
|Financial Crimes
ICE HSI distributed $164,577.44 in funds forfeited from bulk cash seized to the Maverick County Sheriff’s Department January 12, as part of a federal asset sharing program.
December 18, 2020
|Covid-19, Cyber Crimes, Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
"This operation illustrates the ongoing efforts of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, private industry and international law enforcement agencies in keeping our communities safe and free from corruption."
December 17, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
The counterfeit items included more than one million erectile dysfunction pills, footwear, belts, purses and headphones in violation of registered and recorded trademarks. If genuine, the seized merchandise would have had an estimated MSRP of $32,161,194.00.
December 17, 2020
|Financial Crimes
Law enforcement arrested Zheng “Miranda” Zhou, 53, of Missouri City, and Kun “Bruce” Liu, 40, of Sugar Land, Dec. 14. Both made their initial appearances in Houston federal court Dec. 15, at which time the criminal indictment was unsealed.
December 9, 2020
|Covid-19
On Dec. 3, CBP officers at the Ysleta Cargo Facility initially intercepted the shipment of 100,080 3M N95 surgical masks with an MSRP of $600,480. The masks were in-transit at an El Paso bonded warehouse destined to a hospital on the East Coast.
November 30, 2020
|Covid-19, Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
Despite widespread illness and death caused by COVID-19, many individuals and criminal networks are continuing to exploit the pandemic for illegal financial gains, using fraudulent schemes to source, produce, export or sell fake vaccines and related products, according to investigators.
November 24, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
This year’s operation nearly doubled the HSI New Orleans 2019 totals, which resulted in 33,000 items seized, valued at $8 million.
November 24, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
The IPR Center and Amazon today announced the launch of a joint operation to prevent counterfeit goods from entering the U.S. and help protect American consumers.
November 19, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
Awards were presented to 32 organizations, including private sector companies, academic institutions and advocacy organizations, in seven categories: Operation Stolen Promise, E-Commerce Working Group, Sustained Partnerships, Evolving Partnerships, Operational Support, Trade Fraud Enforcement, and Counter-Proliferation Enforcement.
November 5, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
In addition to the cooperative takedown of over 250 piracy sites during Operation 404, Brazilian authorities made five arrests and seized 11 vehicles and one firearm, as well as bulk cash.
October 21, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud
The awareness campaign will educate the public on the consequences of counterfeit and other black-market vapor products and provide tools and resources to report illegal sales to law enforcement. The campaign will include social media, digital resources, and a toolkit to help inform adult consumers about the additional risks associated with suspect vapor products.
September 16, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud

The IPR Center, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) as well as CTAM, the industry marketing organization, today announced a multi-layered partnership designed to strengthen innovation and collaboration within the organizations’ collective content protection efforts.

August 28, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud

The MOU focuses on vital areas of intellectual property, brand protection and anti-counterfeiting strategies, which have become extremely important in the current global economy. The agreement will also facilitate knowledge transfer between the center and university to share mutually beneficial information, research and technology that will advance intellectual property enforcement.

August 17, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud

On July 15, 2020, Hang “Henry” Chen, an employee of CBK, CBK International, and Silicon Electronics, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Donato to four months incarceration with three-years supervised release, a $75,000 fine, and restitution up to $137,000.

July 30, 2020
|Operational
The site illustrates that despite the often-reported sanctuary city movement, many law enforcement agencies and other entities understand the operational value and public benefit to finding common ground on which to collaborate, cooperate and share information vital to securing our borders and solving complex criminal investigations.
July 17, 2020
|Covid-19, Operational

HSI launched a special operation – called Operation Stolen Promise – in April 2020 to protect U.S. consumers from the increasing and evolving threat posed by the pandemic.

May 5, 2020
|Intellectual Property Rights and Commercial Fraud, Covid-19

Since the start of the pandemic, HSI and other law enforcement agencies have seen a significant increase in criminals attempting to capitalize and profit from the fear and anxiety surrounding the virus, including the sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and medical equipment and illicit online sales and trade importation violations of products claiming to be treatment options.

April 29, 2020
|Covid-19

In March and April 2020, CBP officers at the Port of Nogales Mariposa Crossing observed an increase of imported products in demand due to the current COVID-19 related shortages. Special agents began investigating how and where these products we attempting to make their way into the United States.

April 24, 2020
|Covid-19

HSI recently launched Operation Stolen Promise to protect the homeland and global supply-chain from the increasing and evolving threat posed by COVID-19-related fraud and criminal activity by combining HSI’s expertise in global trade investigations, financial fraud, and cyber investigations with robust private and public partnerships.

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