Enlarge / Cisco Programs headquarters in San Jose, California. (credit score: Getty)
A Florida resident was sentenced to 78 months for operating a counterfeit rip-off that generated $100 million in income from pretend networking gear and put the US army’s safety in danger, the US Division of Justice (DOJ) introduced Thursday.
Onur Aksoy, aka Ron Aksoy and Dave Durden, pleaded responsible on June 5, 2023, to 2 counts of an indictment charging him with conspiring with others to visitors in counterfeit items, to commit mail fraud, and to commit wire fraud. His sentence, handed down on Could 1, additionally consists of an order to pay $100 million in restitution to Cisco, a $40,000 high quality, and three years of supervised launch. Aksoy may also must pay his victims a sum {that a} court docket will decide at an unspecified future date, the DOJ mentioned.
In response to the indictment [PDF], Aksoy started plotting the rip-off round August 2013, and the operation ran till a minimum of April 2022. Aksoy used a minimum of 19 corporations and about 15 Amazon storefronts, 10 eBay ones, and direct gross sales—identified collectively as Professional Community Entities—to promote tens of 1000’s of laptop networking gadgets. He imported the merchandise from China and Hong Kong and used pretend Cisco packaging, labels, and paperwork to promote them as new and actual. Reliable variations of the merchandise would’ve bought for over $1 billion, per the indictment.
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