The Software Sopranos
Organized crime targets the booming high-tech black market
Just two weeks ago, the Westminster unit raided a toy warehouse and came up with 26,000 counterfeit Microsoft mice. Several hundred had defective labels that said "certifidate" instead of " 'certificate' of authenticity." Although he has not been charged, police say the owner of the factory, Kent Chen, took off for Taiwan, a common problem in these investigations.
Companies like Microsoft say counterfeiting and piracy hurt consumers as well as computer companies. "While you may be paying cheaper costs upfront, you are running a very big risk of a pirated copy not being able to perform," says Rich LaMagna, Microsoft's chief investigator. LaMagna says consumers aren't just buying the software, they're also purchasing Microsoft's technical support and its ability to upgrade systems and provide virus-free compact disks.
Software you can't refuse. How do the pirates get away with it? Easy. Police say that while operating in the United States, the Tam group set itself up as a pseudo school named West Hill College. The gang then ordered software from Microsoft at the special education rate (about one third the retail price), repackaged the CDs in phony boxes with certificates of authenticity, labels, and licenses, and then sold them at full price via a computer front company. Its profit: $200 to $300 per box.
Even after getting busted, the software scofflaws continue to operate. In Pomona, Calif., for instance, a man named Hung Lin "Jovi" Wu set up a second counterfeiting operation just 26 days after the cops raided his first CD-replicating business. A judge gave Wu 51 months in jail. One witness said two snakeheads--alien smugglers--fronted the money for the second replicator, but Customs officials were never able to find them. Tam, too, is believed to be up to his old tricks. Sentenced to three years of probation and nominal jail time, he went back to running Game Edge, a 1980s-style video game store in a rundown Hacienda Heights strip mall. When the cops visited recently, they say they discovered 232 counterfeit Sony PlayStation video games, including bootleg copies of Gran Turismo 2. Police also confiscated six PlayStations in the store that had been illegally altered, or "chipped," to override Sony's security system and play the knockoff games. Back in a Los Angeles County jail serving time for his first offense, Tam declined to respond to a reporter's request for an interview. He has not been charged in the video game probe. Meanwhile, the Asian Crime Task Force is continuing to investigate. Says Sgt. Tim Murakami: "The goal is to cut off the head of the dragon. Getting to the dragon's head is not that easy because there are so many layers."
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