DOJ discloses U.S. convictions for sale of counterfeit networking hardware

By Grant Gross
IDG News Service
May 6, 2010

U.S. agencies targeting the sale of counterfeit networking hardware have gotten 30 felony convictions, including a man attempting to sell fake networking equipment to the U.S. Marine Corps, and seized $143 million worth of fake Cisco hardware, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday.

The DOJ, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have conducted Operation Network Raider, which has made 700 separate seizures of networking equipment since 2005, the DOJ said.

In addition to the convictions and seizures, nine people are facing trial and another eight defendants are awaiting sentencing, the agencies said. There was a 75 percent decrease in seizures of counterfeit network hardware at U.S. borders from 2008 to 2009, CBP said.

Operation Network Raider seeks to protect computer networks and IT infrastructure in the U.S. from failures associated with counterfeit network hardware, including network routers, switches and network cards, the agencies said.

On Thursday, Ehab Ashoor, 49, a Saudi citizen residing in Sugarland, Texas, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to just over four years in prison and ordered to pay
$119,400 in restitution to Cisco Systems. On Jan. 22, a jury found Ashoor guilty of charges related to trafficking in counterfeit Cisco products, the DOJ said.

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