Fake software worth $100 m seized

Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES: Law enforcement officials on Friday announced the largest

seizure of counterfeit software in US history, a shipping container of cleverly

faked copies of Microsoft's flagship Windows programs -- valued at $100 million.

Federal investigators and police said a well-funded syndicate operating in

Taiwan and the Los Angeles area had tried to ship the pirated software here by

bribing an undercover agent posing as a US Customs Service official.

"We intercepted the nerve," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca

told reporters at a county warehouse where nearly 31,000 copies of the Windows

operating system were held. "This is like a drug cartel. This is like

intercepting a drug cartel," Baca told Reuters.

Police arrested three suspects, including a Taiwanese woman, after an

18-month sting operation aimed at cracking what was believed to be a

distribution pipeline for bringing software knock-offs to Los Angeles,

considered a hub for the underground business.

"Perhaps most disturbing is the high quality of the counterfeit products

seized in this case," said Rich LaMagna, investigations manager for

Microsoft.

Almost indistinguishable



The copies of Windows Millenium and Windows 2000 Professional were
indistinguishable from the real thing except for their lack of authenticating

holograms on the CDs, flaws in packaging and other slight defects, LaMagna said.

More than 4,000 copies of the operating manual for Microsoft's newly released

Windows XP were also seized in the shipment, suggesting that software pirates

were gearing up to produce and ship bootleg copies of the company's new program

which was just released on Oct. 25, LaMagna said.

There were also illegal copies of Symantec Corp. anti-virus software in a

40-foot container full of software that was searched and seized after it was

offloaded from a merchant vessel. Authorities also seized two containers of

counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes, estimated to be worth $3 million.

Police arrested two men, Vincent Koo, 44, Wilson Liu, 39, both of Pasadena,

California, on Nov. 6 and charged them with bribing a federal official and

smuggling.

Koo and Liu allegedly paid a total of $57,500 in attempted bribes to the

undercover agent in order to try to arrange for the counterfeit software to be

cleared through customs in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.

Lisa Woo Chen, 51, was arrested in Los Angeles last Friday when police were

searching a warehouse in suburban Los Angeles. Chen drove up to the warehouse in

a car containing what appeared to be boxes of fake software and packaging

materials, police said.

(C) Reuters Limited.