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A Chinese national living in the US has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for taking part in a scheme to import counterfeit Apple products, the Department of Justice has announced. The products, which included fake iPhones and iPads, were smuggled from China into the US. After serving time, Jianhua "Jeff" Li, 44, will also get one year of supervised release, the DOJ said Tuesday.
More than 40,000 electronic devices and accessories, as well as fake labels and packaging with Apple trademarks, were trafficked and smuggled into the US between July 2009 and February 2014.
The fake labels and phony Apple products were shipped separately to avoid detection by customs, the DOJ said.
"The devices were then shipped to conspirators all over the United States," the Justice Department said. "Proceeds were funneled back to conspirator accounts in Florida and New Jersey via structured cash deposits and then a portion was transferred to conspirators in Italy, further disguising the source of the funds.
More than $1.1 million in sales proceeds were wired from US accounts into accounts that Li controlled overseas, the agency said.
https://www.cnet.com/news/counterfeit-apple-products-land-chinese-national-3-year-prison-sentence/
Also at:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-national-sentenced-over-three-years-prison-trafficking-counterfeit-apple-goods-united
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/fake-apple-chinese-national-3-years-smuggling-counterfeit-goods
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Wednesday July 31 2019, @04:11PM (2 children)
Let's go a bit more legalistic:
Smuggling charges under Chapter 27 would require one of two things: A. The things being brought in being illegal or B. Falsified papers about what was brought in. If this guy had legit papers saying he was carrying consumer electronics and paid appropriate levies, I don't think there's a case for that.
Copyright and trademark infringement are torts. Anyone going to jail for that would be real bad.
Structuring is indeed illegal, but the article doesn't clarify who made the structured cash deposits. It uses a passive voice. "Structured payments were made". If I had to guess, they busted this guy on a conspiracy charge related to this one.
Fraud would be an interesting case, I don't think there's a precedent for infringing trademarks being fraud, but the case law history there is probably pretty deep.
And the standard for green card revocation isn't measured in years in prison, but moral turpitude, i.e. crimes that show an intent or willingness to cause harm to others. DUIs, spousal abuse, robbery, murder, and rape are all ones with a lot of precedent. If they were convicted of fraud, as you say, that probably would be a deportable offense. The rest aren't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 01 2019, @01:49AM (1 child)
Wow, so you can make intelligent posts when your TDS isn't flaring up, impressive.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday August 01 2019, @04:01AM
Condemning republicans for their crimes against humanity is intelligent. Not doing it is pathetic.