Fake Domestic Products Push Chinese Consumers to Shop Overseas
SEOUL, Jan.26 (Korea Bizwire) – The Chinese Spring Festival, which is the biggest holiday in China, and the period when the most Chinese people travel abroad, will start in two weeks. As Chinese tourists are known for clearing out the shelves when shopping, nearby countries such as Korea and Japan are looking forward to the visitors. However, the Chinese government is not happy, as the money that would otherwise be spent in the domestic market is leaking out to foreign countries.The Chinese government is working hard to bring overseas spending back to China. One of the biggest reasons Chinese consumers shop abroad is because of the difference in the quality of products. Chinese consumers think that products from Korea or Japan offer better quality compared to their own. The Chinese government is trying hard to change the perception of local consumers.
http://koreabizwire.com/fake-domestic-products-push-chinese-consumers-to-shop-overseas/48874
Lear MoreVolume of smuggled, counterfeit products in Turkey above $17 bln
In a statement to mark International Customs Day on Tuesday, MKG spokesperson Ali ErcanÖzgür said the volume of such products circulating around the world is hovering at around $1 trillion, while it is estimated to have exceeded $17.2 billion in Turkey.Illegal trade is a multidimensional problem posing a threat to the whole economy as well as to individuals, Özgür said.A separate report published by the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) early According to the MKG statement, 45 percent of the smuggled products that the security officials seized in 2014 were electronic goods, while 22 percent were transport vehicles, 5.9 percent chemicals and 4.1 percent cigarettes and alcohol.last year claimed that Turkey is the second largest market of counterfeit products in the world after China.
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Over EUR 30 mln worth of smuggling items busted in Lithuania in 2015
Lithuanian customs officers in 2015 detained more than 30 million euros worth of smuggling items, informs LETA/BNS according to preliminary data.
More than 24 million euros in damages to the state was prevented by the actions, the Customs Department said.Last year also marks the biggest shipment of smuggling tobacco busted since Lithuania’s customs was restored 25 years ago. Customs officers apprehended 219 million cigarettes (nearly 11 million packs) estimated at 26.5 million euros, which indicates a double increase from 13 million euros worth of detained cigarettes in 2014.Unlike the tendencies of previous years when largest amounts of tobacco were busted on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, Lithuanian customs officers last year caught more illegal Belarusian tobacco brought into Lithuania from other countries of the European Union (EU).
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=115788
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New OPP unit to target contraband cigarette
The Ontario government is creating a new provincial police unit aimed at cracking down on contraband tobacco.The new team — part of the OPP’s Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau — will be dedicated to investigating the smuggling and trafficking of contraband tobacco and to eliminating sophisticated contraband tobacco networks across Ontario.The RCMP estimates that 175 criminal organizations are involved in contraband tobacco in Canada, and believe that many use it to finance more serious illegal activity like drug and weapon trafficking.The new enforcement team fulfills a commitment from last spring’s budget.
http://london.ctvnews.ca/new-opp-unit-to-target-contraband-cigarettes-1.2750955
Lear MoreIllegal cigarette smuggler from Erdington jailed after gang evaded £2.4 million of tax
A MAN from Erdington who was part of a multi-million pound cigarettes smuggling gang has been jailed.Raymond Preece, 60, from Gravelly Lane, was arrested after evidence linked him to an operation which attempted to defraud the government of an estimated £2.4 million.StevenZindani, 59, and Gerard Smythe, 43, were initially arrested by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) after officers raided an industrial unit in June 2012 in Tyseley, Birmingham.Zindani, from Sharmans Cross Road, Solihull was found offloading cigarettes from the back of a lorry while Smythe, from Tilehouse Lane, Tidbury Green, Solihull loaded them into a van.Officers seized nearly six million counterfeit and non-UK duty paid cigarettes, which were packaged in boxes labelled as desserts.A few days earlier, HMRC seized a further 4.5m illicit cigarettes when they searched an unoccupied industrial unit in Redditch.Evidence revealed Zindani and Smythe had been working together to arrange delivery and distribution of the illicit cigarettes.
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Customs Agents Seize Illicit Cash, Cigarettes at Airport
YERUSHALAYIM – Customs agents in recent days seized 1,130 packets of cigarettes that two immigrants from the former Soviet republic of Georgia were attempting to smuggle into Israel. The cigarettes were valued at over NIS 250,000, the Customs Authority said Monday.The smugglers attempted to pass through customs on the “green channel,” but customs officials demanded to see the contents of their luggage – which turned out to be stuffed to the gills with cigarette packets. The two said that they had been asked by a third individual to bring the luggage into the country, but had been unaware of their contents.
http://hamodia.com/2016/01/25/customs-agents-seize-illicit-cash-cigarettes-at-airport/
Lear MoreRaids at gutka-making units; goods worth Rs.3 crore seized
Raids by police and administration during the past one month have unearthed several large scale gutka manufacturing units in and around Berhampur in Odisha.According to police sources, huge quantity of stored gutka, raw materials as well as machinery used for packaging seized from these illegal units was worth over Rs.3 crore. Till now four illegal gutka manufacturing and storage units have been unearthed.It may be noted that since January 1, 2013, the Odisha government has banned manufacture and sale of tobacco-laced gutka in the State.
Fake hoverboard batteries plague Samsung, LG
Fake batteries are becoming a headache for Korean battery-makers Samsung SDI and LG Chem, after recent hoverboard fire and explosion cases in the U.S. reportedly involved counterfeit batteries bearing Samsung and LG logos. More than 300 counterfeit hoverboards worth around $94,000 were seized in Miami by the U.S. Customs aThe counterfeit hoverboards, which were shipped from China, contained batteries carrying the LG logo, the report said, citing officials participating in the investigation. The latest development came after another investigation by U.S. authorities revealed that problematic self-balancing boards used fake Samsung SDI lithium-ion batteries.Neither company produces batteries for hoverboards.“Fake batteries have long been a sticking point, but it is not easy to track down counterfeiters,” said a public relations representative from LG Chemsaid.nd Border Protection last week, according to a news report by Sun-Sentinel.
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160123000022
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Multimillion-dollar fake cigarette trafficker did it for love
Fort Lauderdale: A man who admitted he trafficked knock-off cigarettes with a retail value of about $US5.5 million ($7.8 million) to the US via India and Dubai says he did it out of love for his father. The case involved more than 51,500 cartons of counterfeit cigarettes – which prosecutors say often contain dangerous levels of arsenic and other noxious substances – seized from a shipping container in 2014.Gaurav Joseph Jayaseelan, 26, a citizen of India, told the judge he knew what he did was wrong. He said he had been unduly influenced by his love for and subservience to his father, who sent him to the US to unwittingly meet undercover investigators from the US Food and Drug Administration.Jayaseelan, his father, Joseph RayappanJayaseelan, and another man, Pedro Ivan Flores, were indicted in September 2014. He was sentenced on Friday to 16 months in a US federal prison.
RAID ON CORNISH SMUGGLERS
A spokeswoman for the council said ‘hundreds of pouches of rolling tobacco and large quantities of cash’ were seized.The local police, HM Customs and Trading Standards helped execute the raids, which led to three arrests. The suspects were taken to police stations at Newquay and Camborne.Senior Trading Standards Officer Elizabeth Kirk said dodgy baccy had “proven links to wider criminal activity”.Smuggling tobacco also caused “financial detriment to legitimate traders,” she said.The council official also claimed untaxed tobacco made it more likely that children would smoke.
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