News

Cops bust fake printer ink syndicate

KUALA LUMPUR: Police busted an international syndicate that been raking in millions of ringgit by supplying fake Hewlett Packard printer ink to Middle East and African countries with the arrest of a Singaporean. Federal Commercial Crime Department director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said police made their move following information from HP representatives in the United States.“HP made a statutory declaration (SD) on the case and we launched our investigation after we receiving the SD,” Syed Ismail said.It was understood that the SD was necessary in investigations involving copyright issues.He said police moved in on the main suspect, a 38-year-old Singaporean, and seized two boxes of ink cartridges from him. The suspect who is married to a local, then took police to his condominium unit in Brickfields.“There we seized several documents and a computer,” Syed Ismail said.He said the suspect then led police to an industrial area in Bukit Permai Utama, Ampang where the fake ink was produced and packed using HP packaging.Police arrested a 48-year-old local woman believed to be the man’s business partner and 11 Myanmar workers at the premises.“We also seized 252 boxes of of ink cartridges, computers and documents,” he said.He said initial investigations, based on the seized documents, revealed that the syndicate had been operating for two years. Their main clients were in Bahrain and Tunisia.“We also believe that they used re-cycled ink cartridges to distribute their products,” Syed Ismail said.He said the Singaporean was arrested last year for the same offence. It was a joint operation between police and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs.“They handled the investigations. We do not know what happened to that case,” he said, adding that police will be working closely with HP on this case.All those arrested are being investigated for infringement under the Section 41(1) of Copyright Act 1987. They can be fined a maximum RM20,000 for each copy seized, a maximum of five years’ imprisonment, or both.

Chinese man pleads guilty in $100 mln stolen software sting

In a case U.S. officials say is the first of its kind, a Chinese businessman pleaded guilty Monday to selling stolen American software used in defense, space technology and engineering – programs prosecutors said held a retail value of more than $100 million.The sophisticated software was stolen from an estimated 200 American manufacturers and sold to 325 black market buyers in 61 countries from 2008 to 2011, prosecutors said in court filings. U.S. buyers in 28 states included a NASA engineer and the chief scientist for a defense and law-enforcement contractor, prosecutors said.Corporate victims in the case included Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation, Agilent Technolgoies, Siemens, Delcam, Altera Corp and SAP, a government spokesman said.U.S. officials and the Chinese man’s lawyer, Mingli Chen, said the case was the first in which a businessman involved in pirating industrial software was lured from China by undercover agents and arrested.The businessman, Xiang Li, of Chengdu, China, was arrested in June 2011, during an undercover sting by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents on the Pacific island of Saipan, an American territory near Guam.Video from the undercover meeting in Saipan, filed as evidence in court, is expected to be made public during a press conference Tuesday by John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Charles M. Oberly III, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware.Li, 36, originally charged in a 46-count indictment, pleaded guilty late Monday to single counts of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright violations and wire fraud.”I want to tell the court that what I did was wrong and illegal and I want to say I’m sorry,” Li told U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark during a 90-minute hearing in federal court. The Chinese citizen spoke through a translator.In a court filing, prosecutors David Hall and Edward McAndrew said the retail value of the programs Li sold on the black market exceeded $100 million. During the hearing, Li told U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark that he disputes that figure. After the hearing, his lawyer said Li did not realize the retail value of what he was selling until he was caught and plans to present his own estimate at sentencing, which is set for May 3, he said.In recent years, U.S. officials have targeted software pirates overseas but bringing them to the United States has proved difficult.In one of the largest copyright cases, U.S. prosecutors last year charged seven people, including Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, with racketeering conspiracy and copyright violations. The indictment alleges that Dotcom, who lives in New Zealand, ran an organization that earned $175 million selling an estimated $500 billion worth of pirated movies, TV shows and other entertainment media. Dotcom is fighting extradition from New Zealand.

EXPENSIVE SOFTWAREThe Li case involves sophisticated business software, not entertainment software, and thus small quantities of higher-priced products. The retail value of the products Li pirated ranged from several hundred dollars to more than $1 million apiece. He sold them online for as little as $20 to $1,200, according to government court filings.At one point, Crack99.com and Li’s other sites offered more than 2,000 pirated software titles, prosecutors said.Li trolled black market Internet forums in search of hacked software, and people with the know-how to crack the passwords needed to run the program. Then he advertised them for sale on his websites. Li transferred the pirated programs to customers by sending compressed files via Gmail, or sent them hyperlinks to download servers, officials said.”He was pretty proud of himself,” Chen said of his client’s business acumen. “He did not realize it was such a big crime.”

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Homeland Security Investigations learned of Li’s enterprise after an unidentified U.S. manufacturer noticed his company’s software for sale on crack99.com.Working undercover for 18 months beginning in early 2010, the U.S. agents made at least five purchases from Li. These included pirated versions of “Satellite Tool Kit” by Analytical Graphics Inc. of Exton, Penn., a product prosecutors said is “designed to assist the military, aerospace and intelligence industries through scenario-based modules that simulate real-world situations, such as missile launches, warfare simulations and flight trajectories.” Agents bought software worth $150,000 retail for several thousand dollars.Agents lured Li from China to the U.S. territory of Saipan under the premise of discussing a joint illicit business venture. At an island hotel, Li delivered counterfeit packaging and, prosecutors said, “Twenty gigabytes of proprietary data obtained unlawfully from an American software company.” Officials did not identify the company in court documents.

Credit card fraud busted;gang of 14 arrested in Bangalore

The police have busted a fake credit card racket and arrested a gang of 14 in this connection. The police named the kingpin as Jayakumar, (44), a resident of Binny Mills area, who used to create fake identity cards of his associates to get them credit cards from MNC banks. Using these cards, the accused made purchases in showrooms and malls before selling the goods at other shops cheap. The merchandise purchased through these credit cards included gold jewellery, branded clothes, footwear, expensive watches and mobile phones. Jayakumar was earlier arrested by the police for a similar offence but came out on bail. The gang used to make purchases during weekends to avoid undue attention during the heavy rush and swiped the cards before trashing them for fresh ones. Jayakumar also used to allegedly clone international credit cards from his contact, identified as Gunashekhar who lives abroad. The contact used to procure the credit card details of various people through skimming, clone the cards and send them to Jayakumar for use in Bangalore.Though the amount thus siphoned off is believed to be large, the police are trying to arrive at the exact figure, according to Assistant Commissioner of Police Babu Rajendra Prasad. Most of the gang members are college dropouts working in private firms who fell in with Jayakumar to earn an extra buck.The police named them as Maharaj (27), Satyanarayana (37), Mohammed Imran (28), Nagaraj (30), Amit Sharma (26), Girish (22), Mohammed Masiuddin (23), Syed Kaleem (21), Sheikh Fayaz (21), Pradeep (31), Raja Manikyam (45), Krishna Naidu (23) and Mohammed Ayaz.The police are also on the lookout for other suspects.The police recovered 27 cloned credit cards of various banks, two sports utility vehicles, a car, 11 two-wheelers, 150 gm gold jewellery, a Rado watch, laptops and mobile phones worth Rs. 33 lakh, all purchased by the gang.

Woman caught red-handed with fake credit card in mall

A 29-year-old woman attempted suicide after she was caught red-handed by the police while using afake credit card. Ramandeep Kaur was arrested from Reliance Mall in Oshiwara on Friday afternoon.While in Oshiwara police station, she pushed a woman constable and locked herself in the room, meantfor women constables. The woman tried to hang herself with her belt, but the cops broke open the doorin time. Ramandeep was admitted to Cooper Hospital where the doctors say she is fine and was justpretending to be unconscious. She bought two I-phones and some jewellery worth Rs 1,50,000 usinga fake credit card of HDFC Bank on Friday at Reliance Mall. As soon as she swiped the card, an officerfrom HDFC Bank informed the mall authorities that the credit card was fake. The mall kept her busy tillthe cops arrived by telling her that she was to get a New Year gift. The police said that she used fakecredit cards of various banks by loading new data on it. The cops have yet to extract the full informationfrom her. However, accused Ramandeep Kaur is not co-operating with the police officer during theinterrogation without providing much information to cops like from where she got so many creditcards and whom. However, it is known that on December 27, she went to a mall at Koparwadi, Thaneand bought jewellery worth Rs 90,000 using a credit card. The HDFC Bank had registered a case in thisconnection .Ramandeep Kaur was produced in a local court on Friday and remanded to police custodytill January 2 under Section 420 in (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) case and tillJanuary 4 in the attempted suicide case.

Fake cough syrup manufacturing unit busted

Link to article when available or URL to publication: http://www.business-standard.com/generalnews/news/fake-cough-syrup-manufacturing-unit-busted/102608/
A unit which produced spurious cough syrup has been raided in Niwari area of the district and over500 bottles of the fake substance seized.According to Niwari SHO Shahnazar Ahmad, 550 bottles of thefake syrup were recovered along with colour, equipment and raw material used in the manufacture ofthe drug, during the raid that was carried out on Saturday night.The person allegedly behind the dodgyoperation, one Sachin, a resident of Delhi, has been apprehended by police. 

Crooks use ‘defence’ tag to supply illicit liquor

Link to article when available or URL to publication: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/fake-liquor-brands-cheap-duplicate-labels-of-alcohol-seized/1/240319.html
Next time, if you see a liquor bottle bearing the stamp of ‘For Sale to Defence Personnel Only’, don’tblindly trust its quality, for it could be illicit liquor with fake labels. Excise officials have seized duplicatelabels of Indian Manufactured Foreign Liquor (IMFL) meant for defence personnel only. As many as 20boxes of liquor bottles were also recovered from the accused. It is suspected that such labels mighthave been used for selling Haryana-made liquor or any illicit alcohol in the national Capital. Exciseintelligence officials, for the last few months, have been cracking down harder on those who smuggleliquor from other places to the Capital. The smuggled liquor has not only caused revenue loss to theDelhi government but also raised alarm over the quality of alcohol served in the city. In the massivecrackdown, the officials have seized 82,589 bottles of IMFL and 2,656 bottles of foreign liquor this yeartill December 25. When compared to the last year’s data, the recovery in case of IMFL was more thanthree times this year while in case of foreign liquor it was four times. However, the seizure of fake labelsof IMFL meant for defence personnel on December 17 was an eye-opener. The officials also recovered20 boxes of liquor from the car of Anil Sharma. Sharma, who was reportedly staying in high securitySouth Avenue locality, was caught at Mother Teresa Crescent road in Chanakyapuri. After the seizure,the case was referred to the local police for investigation and an FIR was registered. A preliminaryinquiry revealed that the accused was coming from Haryana, and liquor was meant for delivery inthe Capital.A police official said that samples of liquor of all the brands had been sent for qualityexamination and the reports were awaited. A senior excise department official said it was alarming asthese labels could be used for selling illicit liquor. “How could one verify if he sells inferior quality ofliquor by pasting these labels (on bottles)? People can easily be cheated under the impression that theliquor is of good quality as it is for defence personnel,” said the official. Official sources said it is commonpractice to procure costly liquor from outside and serve it in parties in the Capital to evade taxes. 

2.3L fake UIDs found in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh has earned the dubious distinction of having issued the highest number of bogus Aadhaar numbers in the country. Of the 3.84 lakh fake numbers nationwide, 2.3 lakh were from the state.Unique Identification Authority of India officials have cancelled the fake numbers which were issued without taking biometrics such as fingerprints or iris scans.Sources said the fake numbers were generated by enrolment agencies who misused the “biometric-exemption clause”. While the clause is meant for rare cases where it’s difficult to take fingerprints or iris scans (like for those suffering from leprosy or are blind), some agencies enrolled those who did not fall under this category.Even under the exemption clause, the agencies are supposed to procure photographs and demographic information of those enrolled, but it seems the agencies provided fake information to earn extra money. The government pays around ‘50 for each Aadhaar number generated.“Majority of the bogus Aadhaar numbers were issued in Nellore, Ongole and some areas of Hy-derabad district… We have identified about six enrolment agencies involved in the fraud and have blacklisted them,” said M.V.S. Rami Reddy, deputy director-general, UIDAI, AP.Officials suspected foul play after nearly 50,000 cards were returned undelivered.Other states where fake Aadhaar numbers were issued were Maharashtra (39,000), Jharkhand (33,000), TN (19,000), Odisha (18,000), Delhi (14,000) and UP (8,000).

Counterfeit medicine proving deadly in Africa

Parts of Africa are seeing a dangerous rise in the amount of counterfeit medication – for diseases such as malaria – coming largely from Asia.According toThe Guardian, a combination of lax regulatory oversight in China and sub-par border security in Africa has led to a wave of at-best ineffective medicines making their way to malaria patients across the continent.”What we are told is this, if someone wants to counterfeit a drug, they just take the package to China and they can make it in thousands,” David Nahamya – chief drug inspector for the Ugandan national drug authority – told The Guardian. “You have seen how they make it there. They can copy anything.”A recent story by The Guardian showed that nearly a third of all malaria drugs making their ways to Uganda and Tanzania are illicit, which adds an extra layer of intrigue to China’s burgeoning trade market with African nations.The Atlanta Black Starpointed out that even China’s “CCTV” has made its way to the neighboring land mass, along with the newspaper The China Daily.For their part,China has refutedthe claims made by The Guardian, pointing out their contributions to Africa’s fight against malaria.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/340156

Counterfeit Cancer Medicines Multiply

The fake Avastin that surfaced in the U.S. this year grabbed headlines, but it was just one example of a growing problem in the pharmaceutical world: the rise of counterfeit cancer drugs.Fake versions of costly cancer medicines have appeared in increasing numbers in Asia and the Middle East in recent years and occasionally in Europe and the U.S. In 2011, cancer drugs ranked eighth among the top 10 types of drugs targeted by counterfeiters, according to the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, an industry-funded group; five years ago, they weren’t on the list at all.Authorities have seized some of the fakes in warehouses or shipping containers before they reached patients. But other counterfeits have turned up in pharmacies and hospitals, in one case injuring 80 patients in Shanghai.Counterfeiters are targeting cancer drugs because of the big profits to be made. While pills such as Viagra, long a favorite of the counterfeit trade, cost about $15 to $20 a tablet, a 400-milligram vial of the injectable drug Avastin costs about $2,400.Many of the fake cancer drugs seized in recent years were produced in China, where weak regulation and rapid industrialization have helped counterfeiting flourish. Law-enforcement authorities investigating the origins of the counterfeit Avastin found in the U.S. this year have considered China as a possible source.The fake Avastin traveled through Turkey and the U.K. before reaching the U.S. market. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration later warned dozens of doctors that they might have purchased the fakes from distributors owned by Canada Drugs, a Winnipeg Internet pharmacy company. The fakes contained starch, salt, cleaning solvents and other chemicals and none of the genuine drug’s active ingredient, bevacizumab, according toRoche HoldingAG,ROG.VX-0.92%Avastin’s manufacturer.The FDA declined to comment on the investigation of the matter, which it is leading, citing a policy against discussing continuing probes. Roche declined to comment on the possible origins of the counterfeits.Canada Drugs executives didn’t respond to a request for comment. The company’s employees previously acknowledged in interviews that they shipped the fake drug but said they didn’t know it was counterfeit.The fake Avastin found in the U.S. is just a small part of the global trafficking in counterfeit cancer drugs. A police raid in the Chinese city of Guangzhou last year netted 23 million tablets of a variety of counterfeit drugs, including bogus copies of the generic breast-cancer drug tamoxifen, according to Chinese law-enforcement documents.In March 2010, customs officers in Malta seized a cargo of counterfeit Gleevec, NovartisAG’sNOVN.VX-0.43%leukemia drug, according to Anthony Busuttil, director of enforcement for Maltese customs. He declined to comment on where the fakes came from or where they were being shipped.”There’s been an increase I’d say in the last five to six years” in the counterfeiting of cancer drugs, said Andrew Jackson, head of global security at Novartis. “The industry is obviously looking at this more rigorously than ever before….I suspect that the bad guys have clocked onto the huge profits that can be made.”The most serious case yet to hit Europe involved fakes of AstraZeneca AZN.LN-0.46% PLC’s breast-cancer drug Casodex, which reached U.K. pharmacies in 2007. The counterfeits were made in China, and sent through Hong Kong, Singapore and Belgium before reaching the U.K., where a little-known wholesaler called Consolidated Medical Supplies repackaged the tablets in French packaging and sold them to unsuspecting wholesalers and pharmacies, according to the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, or MHRA.The head of Consolidated Medical Supplies, a Briton named Peter Gillespie, was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2011 for counterfeiting-related offenses including conspiracy to defraud.The U.K. tried to recall the bogus cancer drugs, along with fake schizophrenia and heart-disease medications also sold by Mr. Gillespie, but was unable to account for 700,000 doses that already had reached pharmacies and patients.A Chinese national named Kevin Xu was responsible for selling the counterfeits, according to the MHRA. Mr. Xu was later caught attempting to sell the same types of counterfeits to undercover federal agents in Houston and in 2009 was imprisoned in the U.S. for distributing counterfeit and misbranded pharmaceuticals.Simeon Wilson, global security director at AstraZeneca, said the company now has four staffers in China dedicated to hunting down counterfeit factories. The investigators assemble evidence of alleged wrongdoing and give it to Chinese police for enforcement action.”When we do it, and do it properly, the Chinese authorities have never turned us down,” he said.Still, in the southern manufacturing city of Guangzhou alone, where many of the Chinese-made fakes originate, there are “thousands and thousands” of counterfeiting companies operating, he said. Some making counterfeit medications are licensed as chemical manufacturers, which means they aren’t subject to regulation or inspections by China’s State Food and Drug Administration.The SFDA and China’s Ministry of Public Security didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article.Fake cancer drugs coming out of China have been found to contain everything from harmless placebo ingredients to potentially harmful material to some of the active ingredients in the genuine drugs, said Novartis’s Mr. Jackson. The counterfeit Casodex that reached the U.K. contained 50% to 80% of the active ingredient in the legitimate product, along with “unknown impurities,” the MHRA said.The regulator didn’t respond to questions about whether the fakes had harmed any patients.Chinese patients have been particularly vulnerable to the counterfeits. In 2010, 80 patients taking part in a clinical trial in Shanghai developed acute inflammation of the eye after doctors inadvertently gave them counterfeit Avastin, according to a 2011 report in the New England Journal of Medicine.According to the Shanghai government, 17 of the patients required surgery to fix the problem. The fake Avastin vials contained saline that was contaminated with bacterial endotoxin, the Shanghai government said.Last year, 11 people were convicted of making and selling the counterfeits, including Wu Guosong, a counterfeiter from Heilongjiang province identified by authorities as the group’s ringleader. He got a prison sentence of two years and 10 months.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323320404578211492452353034.html