OECD Eyes Bitcoin, Tobacco Smuggling As Tax Crime Issues
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is focusing a sharper eye on how digital currencies like bitcoin can be used by money launderers to evade taxes, as well as on the illicit tobacco trade, an organization head said Friday at a tax crime forum. In remarks at the OECD’s second annual Tax Crime Investigation Forum, Deputy Secretary General William Danvers said the international body is committed to exploring how digital currencies fit within the organization’s existing campaign against international tax fraud, and is also intensifying.
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Police foil €1m counterfeit wine scam in Italy
Vineyard in TuscanyItalian police have smashed a counterfeiting ring, seizing thousands of litres of fake wine with an estimated value of around €1m.The counterfeiters targeted Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino wines from Tuscany in Italy, which feature among the country’s most prestigious varieties alongside the likes of Barolo, Barbaresco and Amarone.
All told, 75,000 litres of Brunello di Montalcino and 90,000 litres of Rosso di Montalcino were uncovered, along with more than 2,000 fake labels, according to the Brunello di Montalcino Consortium representing the producers. None of the fake wine had entered the supply chain.
http://www.securingindustry.com/food-and-beverage/blank/s104/a2128/#.VBqmvZSSyH0
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Fans educated on fake Rugby World Cup tickets
The organisers of the Rugby World Cup 2015 have launched a campaign to prevent fans from buying unofficial tickets and merchandise.Created by Rugby World Cup Limited and England Rugby 2015 Limited, the initiative was launched today (September 11), a day before official tickets go on sale.
The main tool, which appears on rugbyworldcup.com, allows fans to check whether their tickets are authentic—the first time it has been available for a World Cup rugby tournament.It is accompanied by a guide to official products and channels.
http://www.trademarksandbrandsonline.com/news/fans-educated-on-fake-rugby-world-cup-tickets-4091
Lear MoreMen charged over organised crime
The pair, aged 31 and 32, are accused of blackmail and belonging to or professing to belong to a proscribed organisation.They are expected to appear before Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Following the charges, police said they have conducted 120 searches, arrested 38 people and charged four as part of their operation against organised crime in south and east Belfast.Twenty individuals have also been reported to the Public Prosecution Service.Officers have seized over £50,000 and counterfeit goods with an estimated street value of £23,000.Since the start of April 2014, there have been 231 drug seizures, 188 people have been arrested in relation to drug offences and 87 of these individuals have been charged.
Lear MorePair in court over counterfeit car goods
Standing side by side in the dock at Ballymena Magistrates Court on Thursday, Stephen Anderson, 47, and his wife Elizabeth Helen Anderson, 44, both from Galgorm Hall, were each charged with 10 offences including six counts of possessing items which bore a sign identical to, or likely to be mistaken for, registered trademarks.They are alleged to include BMW Mini cuff-links; BMW tyre valve dust caps and keyrings; Mini Cooper works keyrings; and car badges.
The pair are further charged with selling goods with signs identical to, or likely to be mistaken for, a registered trademark to the value in excess of £700k along with allegations of concealing, disguising, converting or transferring criminal property, namely proceeds from counterfeit vehicle merchandise, and with defrauding the Public Revenue by failing to deliver a tax return.
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Lovely jubbly! Man trading as ‘Del Boy Pedro’ caught selling counterfeit goods
A man trading as ‘Del Boy Pedro’ on the internet has been caught selling counterfeit goods. Jonathon Nicholls, 24, admitted 13 trademark offences after trading standards officers from Merthyr Tydfil council discovered him trading as ‘Del Boy Pedro’ on Facebook during routine searches of social media sites.Justin Davies, prosecuting at Merthyr Crown Court, said that account had been set up in late September last year with buyers contacting Nicholls in personal messages to buy items he would then deliver.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/lovely-jubbly-man-trading-del-7758009
Lear MoreCorrections officer pleads guilty to smuggling pot, tobacco into prison
A corrections officer at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex pleaded guilty to smuggling tobacco and marijuana into the prison, a U.S. attorney’s spokesman said. Jason Epstein, 29, of Orlando, had prisoners ask people outside Coleman to wire him money under pseudonyms, said William Daniels, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III.
Court records show the smuggling began in April of 2012, and lasted until inmates told agents about it in 2014. Epstein was arrested in June and charged with receiving a bribe. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled, but he faces up to 15 years in prison, Daniels said in a statement.
Lear MoreIllicit cigarette study is blowing smoke, says council on smoking and health
One out of three cigarettes smoked in Hong Kong last year was illicit, costing the government more than HK$3.2 billion in lost tax revenue, a study by two overseas think tanks says. But the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (COSH) says the results are “dubious”. The Illicit Tobacco Indicator study – conducted by UK-based Oxford Economics and the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC) in the US – suggests that the city’s illicit cigarette consumption rate stood as high as 33.6 per cent of 1.8 billion cigarettes smoked in 2013, causing a loss of HK$3.2 billion in taxes. Of the 14 countries studied, Hong Kong had the third highest consumption rate, after Brunei and Malaysia, which ranked first and second, respectively.
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Venezuela holds 13 and seizes tonnes of food in smuggling crackdown
Venezuela says it has arrested 13 people and seized 136 tonnes of food since it launched an anti-smuggling operation on its border with Colombia.Last Monday, Venezuela deployed 17,000 troops along the border and began closing all the crossings at night.The one-month ban will be lifted in mid-September.Before the restrictions, up to 40% of goods Venezuela subsidises for its domestic market were being smuggled into Colombia, the authorities said.The goods were being sold illegally in Colombia at much higher prices.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28860010
Lear MoreInterpol’s Michael Ellis: How counterfeiting is affecting all walks of life
Counterfeiters will fake anything that they can sell. Interpol has found everything from fake crash helmets that disintegrate when you fall off your bike to fake airbags that don’t go off in a crash and shampoo and body lotion made in factories where the only water supply is a disused toilet.
Fake alcohol caused the deaths of more than 40 people in the Czech Republic through methanol poisoning. When police raided the operation, they found materials that could have killed potentially thousands, and many more could have been seriously injured.
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