Two Americans Jailed for Counterfeiting

In March 2005, two Americans were sentenced to jail by a Shanghai court after they were convicted of selling fake DVDs worth more than $840,000 over the Internet.

The two Americans were sentenced to one year and two-and-a-half years in jail respectively, in addition to paying criminal fines. Two Chinese accomplices were ordered to pay fines, and one was sentenced to serve 15 months in jail. The court also convicted two Chinese men for their role in the illegal counterfeiting operation.

The two Americans were accused of having sold 180,000 pirated DVDs through eBay.com and a Russian based-website, threedollardvd.com, since October 2002.

In September 2003, an undercover agent from the US Customs authority bought a fake DVD at a flea market in Mississippi. Thereafter, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials began sharing information with the Chinese police authority.

After ten months investigation, Chinese police arrested six suspects and made a series of raids on warehouses. As part of their operation, the Chinese authorities seized more than 210,000 fake DVDs and cash in US dollars and Chinese currency worth more than $95,000, as well as finding three warehouses used to store the counterfeit DVDs.