Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

5 Years In Prison For Selling Fake Cisco Gear

Posted by timothy on from the does-that-even-match-the-warranty-period? dept.

angry tapir writes "A Virginia woman was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for leading a 'sophisticated' conspiracy to import and sell counterfeit Cisco Systems networking equipment. In addition to the prison time, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia also ordered Chun-Yu Zhao, 43, of Chantilly, Virginia, to pay US$2.7 million restitution and a $17,500 fine."

6 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. speculating about the real purpose by Walt+Dismal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm wondering whether there was a deeper purpose to importing counterfeited equipment. If such could be successfully sold into government operations, it could then be used for backdoors if it had been outfitted with modified ICs designed to support that. That the importer was in Virginia normally would not be too important, but Virginia and Maryland being prime areas for government installations makes it more suspicious, if they were going to pose as a local supplier. Then, by cutting their price on bids below normal competitors, they could steer their equipment into specific departments.

    I think they ought to open up some of those counterfeits, spend some money de-capping some chips, and take a good look at what's really in them.

    1. Re:speculating about the real purpose by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Dude industrial espionage between governments is as old as time. My grandfather was stationed in Germany and he used to laugh that if the Soviets wanted to take out the German bases all they'd have to do is send one plane at a time as they were ordered not to shoot at single Soviet planes. Why? Because we had a bounty on any Soviet air tech and we wanted to make sure the pilots knew they could just fly across the border and they'd be safe (and well paid). The Russians got us as well, they paid the Chinese for a dud Sidewinder that got stuck in one of their planes and jumped 10 years on their missile tech. According to the Wiki the copy they made of the sidewinder was so perfect you could mix and match parts and it would work perfectly.

      The Israelis stole the plans for the Mirage from the French, the Chinese paid dirt farmers to dig up pieces of our crashed F117 so they could save years in research on stealth tech. It isn't like they are wanting to go to war with us, they are wanting to save billions in R&D. If they could get those routers into the right areas they could have all our best tech before it even rolls out of prototype stage. think about how much money that would save them in research!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    2. Re:speculating about the real purpose by Runaway1956 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You might want to look up the "Assassin's Mace". The nearest definition that we seem to have, is "unconventional warfare". It's economic and political warfare, backed by military might. The Chinese have stated, as clearly as possible, that they intend to dominate the United States economically, politically, and militarily within 20 years. About ten years have passed, and they are well down the economic road, politically not so far, and they are indeed working on the military aspect. They actually have a few modern ships, that might be capable of challenging our own ships, one on one - although there is little evidence that they understand strategy, tactics, and fleet operations as well as we do. Likewise with their air power - they now own craft that are capable, in skilled hands, of challenging our best aircraft. The question is, do they have the skilled pilots to operate those craft? That hurdle passed (or not) the next question is whether they grasp the strategic, and tactical use of those aircraft.

      Somewhat like the old Soviet, China takes a longterm view of things. They plan decades in advance. And, if they fail to accomplish their mission in 20 years, nothing prevents them from setting a new goal 10 or 20 years further into the future.

      Compare that to the United States, where we can't plan 4 years ahead.

      I think that ultimately, China will succeed.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  2. Punishment should fit the crime by GaryOlson · · Score: 4, Funny

    She should be sentenced to 5 years of pulling cat6 cable thru 200 year old buildings in Boston; and removing all the old POTS wire.

    --
    Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
  3. Cisco Compatible by Spazmania · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The irony is that nowadays folks legally sell the same equipment as "Cisco Compatible." She went to jail over a sticker.

    --
    Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
    1. Re:Cisco Compatible by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's fraud for you. Almost any typically-legal activity can be a crime if you are lying to the other parties involved about what is going on. In this case, I'm assuming that the sticker she went to jail for raised the margin on the goods in question by a nontrivial amount.

      Now, depending on exactly how "compatible" the stuff being sold is, it could be that the seller is either committing fraud by claiming even compatibility, or committing some flavor of copyright infringement against Cisco; but selling falsely labelled goods will push you across the line from legitimate to criminal almost no matter what the product in question is.