CBP nabs Va. computer counterfeiter

   A Chantilly, Va. woman, Chun-yu Zhao, has received a 60-month prison sentence and heavy financial penalties for masterminding a conspiracy to import counterfeit computer networking equipment, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said over the weekend.
   CBP officers intercepted computer networking products that were believed to be counterfeit, with the agency’s National Targeting and Analysis Group (NTAG) in California, piecing together common elements in hundreds of unrelated shipments that ultimately identified the Zhao operation.
   “The smoking gun in this case was a shipment of bogus Cisco Systems labels that the NTAG identified and referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” CBP said in a statement. “These phony labels indicated Zhao’s knowledge and intent to import and sell counterfeit goods. It also allowed the government to get a search warrant and to carry out a controlled delivery that caught Zhao with the counterfeit goods red-handed.”
   CBP said it works cooperatively with intellectual property rights owners like Cisco Systems to stop imports of counterfeit goods while minimizing any disruption to the flow of legitimate merchandise. In the past several years, CBP has been involved in more than 700 seizures of counterfeit computer networking equipment, leading to more than 30 felony convictions in counterfeit computer networking cases by federal prosecutors in the last five years.
   “Besides cheating legitimate businesses, putting counterfeit electronics in sensitive computer networks, aircraft, and vehicles can threaten public safety and even undermine national security,” CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin said in a statement.
   Judge Gerald Lee oversaw the Sept. 9 sentencing in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia. More information on this case is available at https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/September/11-crm-1159.html and https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1109/110909washingtondc3.htm.