Italian citizen sentenced to 37-month prison term for counterfeit Apple products
The U.S. Justice Department said Italian national Rosario La Marca, 54, will spend the next 37 months in prison for illegally smuggling counterfeit iPhones, iPads and iPods from China into the United States have exceeded $15 million.
The devices were shipped separately from the labels bearing counterfeit trademarks to avoid detection by Customs and Border Protection. Once they passed through customs, the devices were then labeled and packaged, the Justice Department said.
“The defendants then re-shipped the devices to conspirators all over the U.S.,” the department explained. “Proceeds from the sales of the devices were funneled back to the defendants’ accounts in Florida and New Jersey via structured cash deposits – broken into multiple deposits of less than $10,000 each to avoid bank reporting requirements – and a portion of the proceeds was then transferred to conspirators in Italy, further disguising the source of the funds.”