A Bergen County, N.J. man was arrested and charged with taking part in a multimillion-dollar conspiracy to sell counterfeit computer networking devices on Amazon and other online retail websites.
Musa Karaman, 35, of North Arlington, N.J. is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and released on $300,000 unsecured bond following a federal court hearing, according to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.
A complaint filed in the case states Karaman and unindicted co-conspirators ran a business from September 2017 through May 2021 in which they presented counterfeit and often inferior networking equipment to unsuspecting buyers on the internet.
Karaman and his business partners allegedly advertised the equipment as new and genuine from Cisco Systems Inc., a major U.S. technology conglomerate.
But the computer parts they sold were actually “procured from various illicit suppliers based in China,” Sellinger said in a news release.
The complaint states that Cisco sent multiple cease-and-desist letters to Karaman and his alleged co-conspirators and that U.S. Customs sent seizure notices. However, the alleged scheme persisted and the suspects kept buying and selling counterfeit products, the complaint states.
In one case, Amazon removed a listing after a customer complained, and the co-conspirators wrote Amazon a letter asking that the listing be reinstated, according to the complaint.
In May 2021, federal agents raided a warehouse in Woodland Park associated with Karaman and discovered “thousands of counterfeit Cisco devices, including 7,260 counterfeit transceivers worth $13.77 million, Sellinger said.
“Cisco informed law enforcement officials that this is one of the largest volumes of counterfeit Cisco transceivers ever seized in the United States, and that the total value of the seized counterfeit Cisco transceivers was unprecedented,” Sellinger said.
Another $3.8 million worth of counterfeit Cisco products – allegedly headed to Karaman and his co-conspirators using bogus names – were intercepted in 20 shipments from September 2017 to May 2021 by U.S. Customers and Border Protection officers, Sellinger said.
The products had been sent “by illicit China-based suppliers” and many of the products contained phony labels, according to the U.S. Attorney and the criminal complaint filed in the case.
On May 26, 2021, an alleged co-conspirator, Israfil “David” Demir, was charged in a criminal complaint, Sellinger said.
Demir allegedly procured counterfeit parts by overseas suppliers using his email account, which he obtained through Google, according to the complaint. The complaint also states that Demir sent a forged Cisco invoice to at least one customer who purchased a counterfeit device.
The complaint alleges Demir emailed an unindicted co-conspirator: “One of the customers complaint little bit [sic]. They sent me some information. If you share with your supplier they can be careful about counterfeit issue.”
Demir’s exact charges were not immediately available Monday morning and were not contained in the Karaman complaint.
If convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, Karaman faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, Sellinger said.
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