Counterfeit Cisco seller sentenced

A man who attempted to sell the Defense Department counterfeit Cisco equipment was sentenced in a Texas federal court May 6 to 51 months in prison.

The man, Ebab Ashoor, 49 and a citizen of Saudi Arabia, had purchased counterfeit Cisco Gigabit Interface Converters through a Chinese online vendor with the intent of selling them to the DoD for use in a Marine Corps network used to transmit troop movements, relay intelligence and maintain security for a military base west of Fallujah, according to an FBI release.  

Ashoor, who resided in Sugarland, Texas, was found guilty of trafficking in counterfeit goods by a federal jury on Jan 22.

Counterfeit goods showing up in the Defense supply chain have become a growing concern. A March 2010 Government Accountability Office report found that they have penetrated into Defense thanks in part to lack of a departmentwide definition of "counterfeit" and a lack of databases for reporting counterfeit items.

Ashoor's capture was part of an FBI and Homeland Security Department initiative dubbed Operation Network Raider targeting counterfeit network hardware made in China. To date, it has resulted in 30 felony convictions and seizure of false Cisco gear worth approximately $143 million, the FBI states.

Also captured by Network Raider was Yongcai Li, 33, a Chinese resident who trafficked in counterfeit products while doing business as Gaoyi Tech. Li was arrested by FBI agents in January 2009 while visiting Las Vegas and was prosecuted in Los Angeles; he was sentenced on Jan. 25 to 30 months prison.

Also awaiting sentencing are two Houston brothers, Michael and Richard Edman, who pleaded guilty to selling fake network cards to military services, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FBI and other agencies, according to the New York Times.

For more:
- read the FBI press release
- check out the March 2010 GAO report on counterfeit items within the DoD supply chain (.pdf)
- read a January 2010 Commerce Department assessment of counterfeit items within the defense industrial base (.pdf)

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