The District of New Jersey has indicted a Florida man over the selling of counterfeit Cisco products.
Onur Aksoy, also known as Ron Aksoy or Dave Durden, of Miami, has been charged with running a scheme to traffic fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco networking equipment.
The operation is believed to have taken place over many years, with the fake goods estimated to have a retail value of more than $1 billion.
Aksoy is charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and to commit mail and wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, and three counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods.
According to the indictment, Aksoy allegedly ran at least 19 companies formed in Florida and New Jersey, with customers including hospitals, schools, government agencies, and the US military.
He is alleged to have also set up at least 15 Amazon storefronts, ten eBay storefronts, and multiple other entities, collectively known as Pro Network Entities, that imported tens of thousands of fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco networking devices from China and Hong Kong.
The indictment states Aksoy resold them to customers in the United States and worldwide, falsely representing them as new and genuine.
It is reported that the Pro Network Entities devices imported from China and Hong Kong were older, lower-model products, some of which had been sold or discarded and modified to appear genuine versions of new, enhanced, and more expensive Cisco devices.
Counterfeiters also allegedly added fake Cisco labels, stickers, boxes, documentation, packaging and other materials to make the devices appear new.
The products would often fail or malfunction, causing damage to their users’ networks and operations, costing those who bought them tens of thousands of dollars.
According to the indictment, Aksoy was sent seven cease and desist letters from Cisco asking him to stop trafficking counterfeit goods.
Aksoy allegedly responded to at least two letters by providing forged documents to Cisco via his attorney.
In July last year, a search warrant was executed at Aksoy’s warehouse, where 1,156 counterfeit Cisco devices with a retail value of over $7 million were seized.
In a separate case, The Western District of Oklahoma recently indicted three individuals for selling $88m of pirated Avaya licenses.
