Chinese Man Gets 30 Months For Fake Cisco Sales

alphadogg writes "A Chinese man was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in a US prison this week for trafficking in counterfeit Cisco Systems gear. Yongcai Li, 33, will also have to pay the networking company nearly $800,000 in restitution after being the conduit for hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of counterfeit computer hardware, the FBI said Friday. Prosecutors said he procured the fake gear in China and then sent it to co-conspirators in the US. His alleged co-conspirators have not been charged. Li was arrested by FBI agents on Jan. 9, 2009, in Las Vegas — while the annual Consumer Electronics Show was taking place there. Two years ago, the FBI claimed to have seized more than $78 million worth of counterfeit equipment in more than 400 seizures."

Excuse me, editors?

[Snover]

2.5 years is not 30 years, it’s 30 months.

Re:What constitutes "fake" hardware?

[Ron Bennett]

Even if the units are coming off the exact same production line (some factories, reportedly, occasionally run extra shifts for counterfeiters), some of the components used may be rejects (ie. functional, but outside of spec; think chip fabs) from the legitimate production run; units not tested as rigorously with minimal quality control.

With that said, even if the unauthorized units are exactly identical, which in the real world is unlikely to the be the case as I've explained above, in regards to the law, it's still counterfeiting.

Ron

Re:What constitutes "fake" hardware?

[The MAZZTer]

Presumably that is the price it would have been worth if it had been genuine instead of counterfeit.

Re:What constitutes "fake" hardware?

[LordLucless]

Because that's how much the conterfeiter could have sold it for. Same reason drug busts are measured by "street value", not by the actual cost to procure the drugs.

Re:What constitutes "fake" hardware?

[PCM2]

If you see an actual Cisco device at a retail shop, and buy it for anything other than learning/private lab purposes... you're a moron. Cisco doesn't retail Cisco gear, they retail Linksys gear.

Look again. Linksys equipment all carries the Cisco logo these days, in addition to the Linksys branding. Sure, none of it looks like Cisco routers, but counterfeits of anything could still damage Cisco's brand.

Re:What constitutes "fake" hardware?

[rwyoder]

So, buy the cheap parts. Selling identical, unbranded hardware isn't a crime (patent issues aside). The Cisco ones come bundled with Cisco support and all that jazz. The problem is when people sell those cheap parts, but claim they are Cisco. People buy them at a higher price because they think they're getting Cisco, and hence, Cisco support. It's that fraud which is the crime.

Anyone who has purchased Cisco hardware knows that the price does not include support.
Support is a separate line item that must be added to the purchase order.

Re:Excuse me, editors?

[Pharmboy]

Sure you can. Third offense of just possession of cocaine can get you a $250,000 fine in CT. [druglibrary.org] CT isn't known as the most strict state in the union either. NJ has fines up to $300,000 for selling prescription drugs. [newjerseyc...torney.com] Penalties for selling drugs often come with both prison time and fines.