HOMAI re-launched as ASPA, resolves to fight counterfeiting
Hologram Manufacturers Association of India (HOMAI), which was founded in 1998 to represent holographic industry in India, has now been re-launched with a broader mandate as Authentication Solution Providers’ Association (ASPA).
Speaking to PrintWeek India, Manoj Kochar, president, ASPA , said, “As we integrated holograms into packaging products and went onto create ancillaries which incorporated anti-counterfeit properties of the hologram, the concept of authentication solution provider emerged. We saw ourselves as an authentication solution provider.”
Lear More
TFWA workshop tackles the fight against counterfeit
The Tax Free World Association has joined forces with French manufacturers’ union Unifab to discuss the growing threat of counterfeit goods to the duty-free and travel-retail industry at the 30th annual TFWA World Exhibition and Conference. Unifab vice-presidents Maître Emmanuelle Hoffman and Philippe Lacoste joined Nestor Martinez-Aguado, responsible for intellectual property at the French Foreign Ministry, to speak at a working lunch today at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes.
Hoffman outlined the growing threat of the illegal manufacturing of counterfeit goods pointing out that last year 36m fake products were seized in Europe, while internationally, that figure was a whopping 3bn.
http://www.dfnionline.com/lead-stories/tfwa-workshop-tackles-fight-counterfeit-28-10-2014/
Lear MoreBelarus welcomes Lithuania’s decision to tighten border controls
MINSK, 28 October (BelTA) – The State Border Committee of Belarus supports the decision of Lithuania to tighten controls on the state border due to increased smuggling activity, BelTA learned from spokesman for the Belarusian border agency Alexander Tishchenko.
“This is a normal practice to ensure the security of the state in every country. Similar actions have been conducted by Belarus. Belarus takes every effort to prevent smuggling and other offences on the state border,” said Alexander Tishchenko.
Lear More
HMRC officers swoop on Edmonton cigarette smuggling handover
Two men have been sentenced for their part in a plot to smuggle almost 600,000 cigarettes, worth an estimated £160,000 into the UK. Student Alan Salih, 33, of Bounces Road, Edmonton, and delivery driver Karzan Ahmedi, of Brighton, were sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court.
The pair met in Edmonton, where they drove to a residential street and parked their vehicles back-to-back with the rear doors open.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs officers intercepted the pair and found almost 600,000 cigarettes in the vans.
http://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/news/11562478.Pair_sentence_for_smuggling_600_000_cigarettes/
Lear MoreTurkish citizen sentenced in St. Louis to 27 months in federal prison for cancer-drug fraud
ST. LOUIS — A Turkish citizen has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for smuggling counterfeit and adulterated cancer treatment drugs into the United States.
Ozkan Semizoglu of Istanbul was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. He pleaded guilty in July to smuggling three shipments of phony and tainted prescription drugs from Turkey to the St. Louis County suburb of Chesterfield. The drugs were labeled as “gifts” or “documents” to conceal their identity.
Lear More37 arrested this year for selling contraband cigarettes within HDB estates
There has been an increase in the number of offenders caught for storing contraband cigarettes in their flats and selling the cigarettes to other residents, according to customs authorities.
An increasing number of offenders have been caught for storing contraband cigarettes in their HDB flats and selling these duty-unpaid cigarettes to residents in the neighbourhood, customs authorities said on Tuesday (Oct 28).
In the first nine months of this year, 37 such offenders were arrested, Singapore Customs said, adding that it has since stepped up enforcement efforts to clamp down on such illegal activities.
Lear MoreBulgarian jailed for smuggling 180,000 cigarettes
October 27, 2014 | Dover-express
A VAN driver who smuggled almost 180,000 cigarettes through Dover has been jailed for two years.
Valentin Ivanov’s van was stopped by Border Force officers at Dover in September 2014. A search of the vehicle uncovered the 179,600 smuggled cigarettes hidden in the back of the van. The duty and VAT evaded on the haul was £41,747.12.
Ivanov pleaded guilty to smuggling the cigarettes into the UK and was jailed for two years at Maidstone Crown Court on October 21.
Upon sentencing, His Honour Judge Joy said that was Ivanov was a very dishonest man.
Lear MoreCigarette smugglers with gang members form Paddington, Southall and Birmingham, jailed
The gang’s smuggling plot was foiled in October 2012 when officers watched Jan Wojcik from Paddington and Pawel Pasnik from West Bromwich meet with the driver of an HGV on a secluded country lane just off the M25. A west London gang with links to Birmingham and abroad have been jailed for smuggling cigarettes after £105,240 in cash was found in wardrobes and cars. Two men, from Paddington and Birmingham, who tried to hide their criminal cash by stashing it inside their wardrobes, have been jailed for over three years each along with one other member of their cigarette smuggling gang, after an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
http://www.thecre.com/cc/?p=4353
Lear MoreThe Counterfeiting Conundrum: How Technology Will Slam the Scam
Counterfeiting is a high-margin $654 billion growth industry largely run by criminal organizations that have few disincentives to stop.
Anti-counterfeiting laws and punishment are non-existent in many jurisdictions, leaving the responsibility of abating the flow of fakes to enterprises. Legacy anti-counterfeiting technologies, such as barcodes and holograms, can be duplicated. However, a new generation of technologies are already in the field or about to be unleashed upon the counterfeiters. We detail some of the more interesting technologies in this report. (This article is brought to you by Sophic Capital.
http://www.cantechletter.com/2014/10/counterfeiting/
Lear MoreMPAA Reveals ‘World’s Most Notorious’ DVD Piracy Markets
Home entertainment may be going digital, but illegal counterfeiting of DVD movies remains rampant in parts of the world, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, which outlined the findings in an Oct. 24 letter to the U.S. Trade Representative.
The USTR Sept. 26 issued a request for public comments on piracy. While the Hollywood studio trade organization detailed top online sites harboring pirated video, it acknowledged that much of the general public worldwide still comes more frequently in contact with pirated DVDs.
Lear More