CEO of Dozens of Companies Charged in Scheme to Traffic An Estimated $1bn in Fake Cisco Devices

The US Office of Justice (DOJ) introduced past Friday that a Florida resident named Ron Aksoy has been arrested and billed for allegedly offering thousands of fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco solutions about the course of 12 a long time.

Also known as Dave Durden, Aksoy, 38, would have run at least 19 companies formed in New Jersey and Florida, at the very least 15 Amazon storefronts, roughly 10 eBay storefronts, and multiple other entities with an approximated retail price of in excess of $1bn.

Aksoy is billed with just one rely of conspiracy to website traffic in counterfeit goods and to commit mail and wire fraud three counts of mail fraud four counts of wire fraud and three counts of trafficking in counterfeit merchandise.

✔ Approved From Our Partners

Protect and backup your data using AOMEI Backupper. AOMEI Backupper takes secure and encrypted backups from your Windows, hard drives or partitions. With AOMEI Backupper you will never be worried about loosing your data anymore.

Get AOMEI Backupper with 72% discount from an authorized distrinutor of AOMEI: SerialCart® (Limited Offer).

➤ Activate Your Coupon Code

According to court files, the bogus organizations imported tens of countless numbers of counterfeit Cisco networking gadgets from China and Hong Kong and resold them to clients in the US and abroad, falsely representing the products as new and genuine. 

These generally older, decreased-model goods (some of which had been marketed or discarded) have been modified by Chinese counterfeiters to show up to be genuine versions of new, increased, and far more pricey Cisco products.

As a consequence, the fraudulent and counterfeit merchandise endured from quite a few functionality, features, and safety challenges, often costing consumers tens of hundreds of pounds. 

As established forth in the indictment, Customs and Border Security (CBP) seized roughly 180 shipments of counterfeit Cisco equipment that were being getting shipped to the Pro Network Entities (the bogus enterprise identify under which Aksoy operated) from China and Hong Kong involving 2014 and 2022.

 In reaction to some of these seizures, Aksoy would have falsely submitted official paperwork to CBP under the alias “Dave Durden,” an id that he also applied to talk with Chinese co-conspirators.

The full procedure allegedly produced above $100 million in earnings, of which Aksoy retained a considerable share, when the relaxation went to his co-conspirators.

The DOJ has compiled a publicly readily available list of Pro Network corporations, alongisde eBay and Amazon storefronts applied by the alleged criminal. Possible victims have been recommended to get in contact with authorities.

The news comes days soon after Cisco rolled out patches for security flaws across many versions of its items.