Smuggler of counterfeit electronics sentenced to 37 months in prison
An Italian national named Rosario La Marca has been sentenced to 37 months in prison by a Newark, New Jersey judge for smuggling fake#Electronics such as iPhones, iPads, and iPods from #china into the#United States. The 54-year-old who resided in Naples, Italy had pleaded guilty on February 22 to charges of trafficking and smuggling fake goods into the United States as well as laundering money. The judge also sentenced him to one year of supervised release.
How Rosario committed the crimes
Rosario had admitted in February this year that from July 2009 to February 2014, he and five others conspired to smuggle more than 40,000 electronic devices and accessories from China into the United States. The electronics bared Sony and Apple trademarks and were estimated to be worth $150 million. The devices were labeled as genuine after being passed through U.S customs and were then sent to conspirators inside the U.S.
Lear MoreChina intensifies crackdown on smuggled, counterfeit cigarettes
BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) — Chinese tobacco authorities seized 195,000 cartons of smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes in the first half of this year, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration said Thursday.
Tobacco authorities at all levels worked closely with the police and customs authorities to intensify the crackdown on smuggling gangs.
A total of 2,817 counterfeit cigarette cases, each worth 50,000 yuan (7,353 U.S. dollars) or more, were solved from January to June.
Law enforcement agencies captured 3,786 suspects for producing and selling counterfeit cigarettes and prosecuted 1,601 of them.
China is the world’s largest cigarette producer and consumer market, with over 316 million adult smokers. The cigarette trade is governed by a state monopoly.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-07/20/c_
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Cess On Cigarettes Wipes Out Rs 48K Cr From Bse in 1 Day
The Goods and Services Tax Council’s decision to increase the cess on cigarettes triggered a sharp selloff in shares of tobacco companies with the ITC scrip falling by nearly 13 per cent on
Tuesday and investors losing nearly Rs 48,000 crore in a single day’s trading.
According to a report on moneycontrol.com, the total market capitalisation of ITC on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) contracted from Rs 3,96,171.25 crore recorded on Monday to Rs 3,48,629 crore on Tuesday, which translates into a notional loss of Rs 47,542 crore. ITC which holds a weightage of 7.2 per cent in the Sensex was the biggest contributor to the decline in the index.
Other cigarette stocks Godfrey Phillips and VST Industries also tanked by up to 7.83 per cent.
After the GST Council raised the cess on cigarettes on Monday, many brokerages revised their estimates on the downside. The Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) are among the major stakeholders in ITC, followed by insurance major LIC. FPIs hold 19.99 per cent stake in ITC as per shareholding data for the quarter ended June, followed by LIC which holds 16.25 per cent and financial institutions or banks which have 9.18 per cent stake.
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Woman Caught Smuggling 102 iPhone Units Into China by Wearing Them
There have been ample reports in the past of how the obsession with Apple’s most coveted product, the iPhone, has led people to commit bizarre crimes. Whether it’s the design or its position as a status symbol, the iPhone sells like hot cakes worldwide and thus, is equatable to a huge sum of money when sold in black markets. Likewise, a new case has emerged in China where an overambitious woman tried to smuggle 102 iPhone units from Hong Kong to China by strapping them onto her body. But before her efforts could bear fruits, she was caught by Chinese custom officials at the airport, where after a thorough checking 15 luxury watches were also discovered to be in her possession.
According to a report by Chinese media XMNN, custom officers from China snatched the woman at a suspicious sight of her wearing more clothes than usual in the sweltering summer heat. The overabundance of clothes made the woman’s torso look inflated and out of proportion as compared with the rest of her body
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/iphone-woman-smuggle-china-hong-kong-wrap-around-1726846
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Nissan drives $283m-worth of fake parts off the market
A four-year partnership between carmaker Nissan and MarkMonitor has resulted in more than 31,700 counterfeit products being kept off the roads.
The partnership, which began in 2013, aims to take action against fake auto parts that pose a threat to consumer safety as well as damaging Nissan’s reputation for producing high-quality goods.
According to the firms, the partnership has made “major strides” in the crackdown of illicit activity, including the removal of more than 31,700 fake products and enforcing against more than 125,000 marketplace listings valued at $283m.
The partnership, which includes website and marketplace monitoring and enforcement tools, has also increased customer safety, the firms said, as well as decreasing domain abuse and brand confusion for the Nissan and Infiniti brands, and has significantly reduced counterfeit listings on multiple marketplace platforms globally.
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Iran Breaks Major Silver-Smuggling Ring
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Police have smashed a huge ring smuggling silver products in the northeastern city of Mashhad, arresting three ringleaders, an official said.
Police launched an operation to arrest the smugglers in the city of Mashhad on Saturday after months of intelligence activities, Qassem Khorshidi, spokesperson for the headquarters against goods and currency smuggling told Tasnim.
During the raid on a depot inside a dwelling, a 400-kg cargo of jewelry raw material and silver products was confiscated, which has been smuggled from Thailand by airfreight, he added.
The official also noted that three main ringleaders have been arrested in the operation, expressing the hope that confiscation of such huge cargo of contraband would revitalize the ailing silver industry in the Province of Khorasan Razavi.
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2017/07/17/1466497/iran-breaks-major-silver-smuggling-ring
Lear MoreDoncaster man punished for dealing in illicit tobacco
A Doncaster man has been punished for his part in an underworld operation dealing in illicit tobacco worth more than £44, 000 in duty taxes. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Andrew Mason was spotted by customs officers unloading 125kg of illegal hand-rolling tobacco from a van with another man on George Street in Doncaster in January 2016.
He was arrested and officers found £2, 500 cash in his pockets, which he admitted was for buying the illicit goods. The court heard earlier how Andrew Bond, aged 54, and his son Joe Karlson Bond, aged 22, of Ha’penny Bridge Way in Hull, were caught buying 50, 000 cigarettes and 50kg hand-rolling tobacco at a car park in Retford, Nottinghamshire, in October 2015.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/doncaster-man-punished-for-dealing-in-illicit-tobacco-1-8654815
Lear MoreTrader sentenced over 82,000 counterfeit tobacco haul
A trader who was caught selling counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco in East Street Market has been sentenced to a maximum of 12 months (suspended for two years). Mr Abdullah Al-Taaei (48) of Kennington, SE11 was due to stand trial on 6 July at the Inner London Crown Court but pleaded guilty before it commenced to multiple offences relating to the supply and possession of illegal tobacco. The court then adjourned sentencing until 29 July 2015 pending pre-sentence reports.The offences took place in March 2014 and concerned over 82,000 cigarettes as well as hand rolling tobacco. The court heard that following an anonymous tip-off Al-Taaei had been subject to surveillance by Southwark Council’s trading standard team over a three month period in early 2014.
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Capacity Building Programme for Police Officers on Socio-Economic Impact of Counterfeiting, Smuggling and Piracy
Intellectual property is a tool to incentivize innovation and creativity to strengthen the economic growth of a nation. Enforcement agencies, police and customs play a pivotal role in protection of consumer rights. There are adequate laws available but enforcement of the laws makes the role of police officers very important to fight against counterfeiters and smugglers. Therefore, to combat the socio-economic evils of counterfeiting and smuggling from the society, which are risky parasites to the economy and cause danger to the lives of individuals, FICCI CASCADE is organising a capacity building program to sensitize the police officers on the Socio-Economic Impact of Counterfeiting, Smuggling and Piracy at the Academy for Smart Policing, New Delhi on 27th July, 2018.
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Andrzej Krasnodebski of Poland jailed for smuggling nine million cigarettes in air filters into Dover
A lorry driver, who smuggled more than nine million cigarettes into the UK hidden inside air filter units, has been jailed for three years. HM Revenue and Customs estimates that Andrzej Krasnodebski evaded evading £2.5 million in duty. He was sentenced last Thursday at Maidstone Crown Court.
Krasnodebski, 45, was arrested by Border Force officers at Dover Eastern Docks on Tuesday June 13. A scan and search of the lorry’s trailer revealed it was packed with cigarettes.
Officers discovered that the load contained 1,056 cardboard boxes, each containing a bubble-wrapped air filter unit. When the casing was removed each unit had 9,000 cigarettes inside, with a total of 9,504,000 of a brand called Pect.
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/trucker-jailed-for-smuggling-nine-128969/
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