Cigarette smuggling ring convicted
Six people – including airport customs officers – have been found guilty in a cigarette smuggling scheme that goes back many years and ended up costing the state at least €639,000 in unpaid tax revenue.
After two-and-a-half years of court hearings, six people were found guilty on Thursday for illegal possession of commercial goods, conspiracy to commit fraud, committing a misdemeanour, money laundering, bribing a public official, and neglect of service duty.
The case dates back to 2008, when authorities received a tip-off and searched the cargo of a Cyprus Airways aircraft upon arrival. Expecting to find drugs in what had been declared on paper as furniture, they instead discovered 25 kilos of cigarettes and cigars.
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Sale of smuggled cigarette causing billions of rupees loss to kitty
The sale of smuggled cigarettes has reached alarming proportion, inflicting a loss of over Rs20 billion to the national kitty annually. Sources said that multinational cigarette manufacturers have hired the help of Nielsen, an internationally reputed market research company, to produce a “doctored report” which was a gross misrepresentation of facts and against local manufacturers of tobacco products. The report mentions little or nothing about smuggled cigarettes being sold in Pakistan.
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‘Why fake lubricants exist in Nigeria’
Lack of stricter measures against producers of fake lubricants, selling of fake lubricants at cheaper prices by unscrupulous persons, high level of connivance among distributors and others, have been adduced as reasons for the proliferation of sub-standard lubricants in the industry, stakeholders in the downstream petroleum industry have said.
The stakeholders, including the Managing Director, A-Z Petrochemicals Mr. Linus Ilozue and the Managing Director, LUBCON Nigeria Limited, Mr. Taiye Williams, spoke at different fora in Lagos. They urged the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to come up with stricter measures to curb fake lubricants.
http://thenationonlineng.net/fake-lubricants-exist-nigeria/
Lear MoreChina’s fake milk powder scandal
Chaotic sales channels have been blamed for China’s latest fake infant formula scandal where 22,600 cans of counterfeit milk powder were sold under the brands of Chinese infant formula maker Beingmate and US-based Abbott Laboratories. Fonterra Cooperative Group has a close association with both – it invested in an 18.8 percent stake in Beingmate last year and is jointly developing a new dairy farm hub in China with Abbott.
Nine people were arrested over the weekend and charged with making and selling fake products in seven provinces and Chinese media report they were all long-time formula distributors who were familiar with production processes.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1604/S00691/chinas-fake-milk-powder-scandal.htm
Lear MoreHigh taxes spur cigarette smuggling
Huge profit margins, high customs duty and increasing demand among youngsters has led to exponential increase in cigarette smuggling in the state. Gujarat has turned out to be the latest hotspot for cigarette smugglers, as cigarettes smuggled into the state increased by 40 times in four years. In 2012, three cases of cigarette smuggling were reported and 44.2 lakh cigarettes worth Rs 62 lakh were seized. There were no cases reported in 2013 and 2014, but in 2015, around 4.96 crore cigarettes worth Rs37.29 crore were seized by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Customs in Gujarat. Over 90% of the hauls came from Mundra port.
MarkMonitor Annual Spring Symposium: Swarovski says catching ‘big fish’ counterfeiters is crucial
A lawyer at jewellery company Swarovski has said catching counterfeiters who operate offline is equally as important as taking down infringing websites, though the scale and reach may not always be the same. Running through enforcement figures from 2015, Leo Longauer, director of global IP enforcement at Swarovski, said that “catching the big fish” behind infringements was key. “Taking down a website is industrial enforcement and in an instant we can take down multiple websites, but you also want to catch the people making these products,” he said.
Counterfeit Trade Estimated To Be Worth $461 Billion A Year
In 2013, counterfeit goods worth more than €461 billion (about $524 billion at current exchange) were sold across the world, according to aa report Monday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office.
The study looked at half a million customs seizures from around the world over the period 2011 to 2013. according to WWD. It estimated that, in 2013, up to 5 percent of goods imported into the European Union in 2013 were fakes. The accessories were worth about €85 billion (or $116 billion).
Fake product imports account for 2.5 pc of global trade: OECD
Global import of counterfeit and pirated goods are worth 461 billion dollars or 2.5 per cent of total global trade, and 63 per cent of these products originated from China. According to a new report by the OECD and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office titled “Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods: Mapping the Economic Impact” the value of imported fake goods worldwide was 461 billion dollars in 2013, compared with total imports in world trade of 17.9 trillion dollars. Up to five per cent of goods imported into the European Union are fakes while most of it originate in middle income or emerging countries.
http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/World/20160418/2840424.html
Lear MoreFake products, unlicensed retailers pose serious health risk
Two recent busts on Oahu bring light to what could be a very serious risk for those looking to change their appearance on the cheap. Mike Carney, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says one of the operations involved cosmetic contact lenses.
“They’re colored lenses. They provide special effects. They’re very popular with the kids,” Carney said.
http://khon2.com/2016/04/18/fake-products-unlicensed-retailers-pose-serious-health-risk/
Lear MoreThe ‘fakes’ industry is worth $461 billion
Think twice before you buy those shoes online. The shady business of “fakes” and counterfeit goods has ballooned into a global industry worth as much as $461 billion, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Counterfeit trade amounted to as much as 2.5% of world trade in 2013, up from an estimated 1.9% in 2008. That’s equivalent to the size of Austria’s economy.
Global data on customs seizures shows Rolex, Nike, Ray Ban and Louis Vuitton were the brands with the most knockoffs.