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How Customs & Border Pro­tection catches coun­terfeit products coming into the U.S.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Thousands of people cross the Canadian border from New York every day. There are 16 border crossings across the state that are all hot spots for counterfeit products to make their way into the U.S. economy.

“We liken it to looking for a needle in a needle stack. Actually, that's how difficult it is,” said Kevin Corsaro, watch commander for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.

What You Need To Know

Thousands of people cross the Canadian border from New York every day through one of the state's 16 border crossings

Counterfeit products are becoming more common across the border and it's taking a toll on our health and safety, as well as the U.S. economy

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are trained with manufacturing companies to keep a close eye on the details that can differentiate real and counterfeit products crossing the border

The most common counterfeit products are apparel, perfumes and electronic goods

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that an Ontario importer pleaded guilty to trafficking $4.2 million in counterfeit merchandise from approximately Oct. 2016 to Aug. 1, 2017, and those costs come out of companies' revenues that make everyday products more expensive

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that an Ontario importer pleaded guilty to trafficking $4.2 million in counterfeit merchandise from approximately Oct. 2016 to Aug. 1, 2017. That process starts with a close eye used by trained agents at the border who know what to look out for.

“On the primary line, our officers are basically interviewing the driver and reviewing the paperwork," Corsaro explained. "If there's inconsistencies in the paperwork, they will refer that truck to the secondary area for an exam. And then from there, they're looking for any merchandise that's either unmanifested or any merchandise that may be counterfeit. Obviously, any illegal narcotics or any illegal substances that are in the truck that are being illegally smuggled into our country."

But as counterfeiting becomes more frequent, so does the cost of goods, which ultimately continues the cycle.

“It happens, often. Actually, it happens, maybe not on a grand scale, like in a large container,” he explained.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection sees about 3,000 trucks crossing the border every day. That’s where they find the most counterfeit goods at the border by land. Although, they can also be found via air and train travel, as well as in postal services.

“We interdict products that we suspect to be counterfeit," said Gaetano Cordone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s port director for the Buffalo area. "And we have strong relationships with the trade community. To talk to some of these companies and explore some of the products that we encounter and then make the determination as to whether or not it's a legitimate or something that's counterfeit, and that we actually need to seize."

Counterfeit products are most common in apparel, perfume and electronic goods, so agents have a working relationship with many brands to be trained on how they create the product, and how agents at the border can spot the differences.

“So the stitching here is not even across the cap here. So this actually starts to tell away and go low and then back high again. So this is not something that New Era would endorse and produce on their end, as well as the sturdiness of this cap. When you purchase these caps, they're a lot more firm than this. They're not falling as this cap is doing here,” Cordone showed. “We have things like these counterfeit jerseys here. They're labeled by Nike. But again, this is not a product that Nike would normally manufacture with this poor stitching. The labeling, the letters, not all of it being situated in the right fashion."

Items displayed are only about 5% of what they’ve seized so far this year.

“Some of it is folks just don't want to pay the top dollar for legitimate and noncounterfeit items," Cordone said. "So it's much cheaper to purchase these products at a lower price. But in doing so, they don't realize some of the unintended consequences that occur from that, as well as some of the harmful impact to the economy and to trade and certain health risks as well."

Health risks could apply to counterfeit perfumes or colognes. In many cases, they say, these counterfeit products are not made in an FDA lab, so the products could be made from harmful bacteria when applied to our skin.

“If they're not manufactured in a safe way, someone buys these Christmas lights online and then they put them up at their house, and then they can actually be a fire hazard in their home," he added.

However, he says the impact counterfeit products are having on the U.S. economy can be considered most impactful.

“If we're purchasing counterfeit goods, then the legitimate companies, in order to be able to make up the revenue loss, they are then increasing their prices. They have to increase their prices in order to continue to compete and make up for the revenue loss of the millions and billions of dollars that they're losing as a result of these counterfeit products being so,” Cordone explained. “Folks may ask themselves, 'Why does this matter? Why does it matter if I want to save a couple extra dollars to purchase a counterfeit jersey?' It does matter. The implications are significant. Some of these counterfeit products are produced through forced labor. Others are used to support the illegal drug trade. We're a week from Sept. 11. Some of these support, you know, transnational criminal organizations and terrorist organizations. So it has that negative impact on the economy and the businesses in the United States. So when folks are trying to maybe save a dollar, sometimes they have to take a step back and think about the other impacts, not just to themselves, but to our folks and the businesses in this community."

Cordone says that Louis Vuitton reports a $1 billion loss of revenue on an annual basis as a result of manufactured counterfeit products. The agency has also found dozens of counterfeit Super Bowl rings and high-end designer products. Its most expensive counterfeit catch so far this year was a watch that’s estimated at more than $1 million in value if it was real.

"If it's a Josh Allen jersey and you're getting it for $25, it's likely that it's probably counterfeit,” Corsaro said.

“This is just a small snapshot here for Buffalo. So I mean we have containers and containers of this stuff coming in through our ports of entry across the country,” Cordone said. “We encourage folks that when they're purchasing something online and it seems like the price is too good to be true, most likely that's accurate. It probably is too good to be true, and most likely is counterfeit."

As trends continue, and costs increase, the consequence can end up on the consumer.

“If we're purchasing counterfeit goods, then the legitimate companies, in order to be able to make up the revenue loss, they are then increasing their prices," Cordone said. "They have to increase their prices in order to continue to compete and make up for the revenue loss of the millions and billions of dollars that they're losing as a result of these counterfeit products being so."

USCBP says if consumers feel they’ve purchased something that may be counterfeit, if there is incorrect spelling on a product, or if the size or font is different, or packaging is poor material, they have the opportunity to report it to Customs and Border Protection at cbp.gov.

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Brighton bookkeeper stole £1m to fund Belize property empire

A trusted book-keeper stole more than £1 million from her employer to fund a property empire, including a luxury home in Belize she planned to retire to.

Louise Gow, 64, diverted up to £200,000 a year from Smuggler, an award-winning video production company – simply by putting her own bank account details on the invoices she was paid to process.

As colleagues were being laid off or asked to take pay cuts during the pandemic, she increased the amount she diverted into her own pocket.

When confronted – via a videocall as she visited Belize – she admitted stealing a couple of hundred thousand, and finally the £1,116,82.05 it was discovered she had taken over five years, blaming the menopause.

Now, after being jailed for 44 months last week, she is beginning her retirement behind bars.

At a hearing at Lewes Crown Court last Wednesday, Judge Mark van der Zwart said: “Your thefts have enabled you to build what seems to have been a substantial portfolio of homes, including a large luxury home you planned to retire to in Belize.

“During the covid era when valued members of staff were laid off and everybody in the company took a pay cut, your helping yourself to the company funds seems to have increased.

“You seem to have been surprised when the managing director Fergus Brown made a report to the police. You were planning on continuing to steal for longer until you had taken enough.

“You returned to the UK when you could have stayed in that country and contests attempts to extradite you.

“You sought to blame the menopause and to reframe your actions as a way of providing employment to people in poorer parts of the world.

“The menopause can provide an explanation for why peole behave in ways different to how they behaved before.

“But it cannot amount to justification for spending five years plundering the resources of your trusted employer, funnelling the proceeds into your property empire.”

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Brown said Gow had been a trusted member of staff since he founded Smuggler in 2008.

He said: “She used her position of power and authority to steal large amounts of money from us and to fund a luxury lifestyle for her and her husband.

“It limited our growth. We lost a material amount of money that would have been used to grow our company.

“Her assistant took the theft very badly. She thought they were friends. It has affected her trust. She was very hurt by the situation and has no one to speak to about what has happened.”

Prosecuting, Rio Pahlavanpour said her deception began to unravel on 29 April 2021, when Barclays contacted Mr Brown saying someone was trying to transfer money to Smuggler Ltd was using the wrong account number.

Gow initially tried to explain it away as an innocent mistake, but then Barclays found more and more examples. Gow was eventually charged with fraud by abuse of position between July 2016 and May 2021.

Mr Pahlavanpour said the Crown would not be making an application under the Proceeds of Crime Act as a civil case was in progress to recover the funds.

Defending, Caroline Stewart said: “There was an intention to put it all back but she was never able to do that. when it was brought up she did admit responsibility.

“She was in Belize, in a remote meeting when that admission was made and she returned to this country knowing that there would be some serious consequences.”

She added: “She doesn’t understand how she could have done something so stupid and self destructive.

“She has thrown away her longstanding career, her marriage – she’s now divorced. The esteem those who knew her held her in, her career – it’s all gone.”

Gow, who now lives in St Albans, was declared bankrupt in February. A receiver has now been appointed in the civil case to recover funds.

[leaujongyongnews]

当一家新加坡公司创始人被“学历造假”缠身

人工智能、数字孪生、城市建模···在一家名为VIZZIO的新加坡初创公���的官网上，不难发现它正在试图通过这些足够具有代表性的特殊词语向外界展示出其全貌所在。然而，近段时间以来，VIZZIO却正在以一种意想不到的方式为外界所认知。

把时间拨回到去年底。彼时，在东南亚科技媒体Tech in Asia的一篇报道中，VIZZIO被描述成“一家不再让3D地图为谷歌所独霸的新加坡初创公司”——相比于需要投入大量人力财力、以及街景采集车来完成地图绘制的谷歌而言，在卫星图像的加持下，VIZZIO可以通过深度学习算法和人工智能技术达成同样甚至更好的效果，并且在这个过程中全景摄像头不再是一种必需。

根据VIZZIO的官网介绍，自2020年成立以来，VIZZIO已经绘制了140万平方公里的3D城市建模以及超83.5万平方米的室内面积。此外，在市场表现方面，据多方报道，VIZZIO也同至少两家国家级的亚洲国防机构展开了合作，并且官网信息显示其B2B2G客户总数达29家。。

VIZZIO不俗的开局自然也赢得了外界的青睐。去年十月，其董事会也迎来了创新工场董事长��CEO李开复的加入。VIZZIO在当时宣布这一动态的新闻稿中写到，“他（李开复）的加入证明了VIZZIO的全球影响力及公司在国际人工智能界的信任···”同时，也同在去年十月，VIZZIO还入选了The Information评选的“50家最具前景初创公司”名单，而该公司也是其中唯一一家获得此殊荣的新加坡初创公司。

如果按照这样的剧情发展下去，对这家新秀来说，在不久的将来，VIZZIO在官网中所描述的愿景“构建整个星球的3D城市模型”似乎并不是一个遥不可及的梦想。但VIZZIO所承载的外界信任却也随着另一篇报道的发布而出现裂隙。并且值得一提的是，这篇文章的发布方同样为盛赞VIZZIO“不再让3D地图为谷歌所独霸”的那家媒体。

在这篇堪称VIZZIO转折点的文章中，Tech in Asia发现，VIZZIO的创始人Jon Lee伪造了其剑桥博士学位。该媒体称，Jon Lee也已对其承认，自己并没有获得剑桥大学的计算机科学博士学位。而更让人意外的是，这似乎并不是Jon Lee首次资历造假。早在2001年时——当时Jon Lee还在以Dennis Lee的名称在新加坡软件开发初创公司Elipva担任CTO，Lee就曾因被发现虚假宣称其获得斯坦福大学和麻省理工学院的奖项及奖学金而被Elipva解雇。

这一发现也在之后迅速引起发酵。同日，VIZZIO董事会在召开特别会议后发布声明表示，对Jon Lee表示支持。董事会称，“何人都不应该因为23年前发生的事情而再次受到制裁。当时，Jon Lee还是一个29岁的科技创业者···董事会认为，VIZZIO开发的技术并不依赖于博士学位。而该技术已在新加坡和世界其他地方得到了验证和成功应用··· 我们不能、也不会剥夺他的毕生事业，因为他在近23年前作为一个年轻人时就已经付出了应有的代价··· 我们决心支持Jon，并将继续履行VIZZIO的使命以及我们业务的未来。”

随后，在上述转折的次日——亦即1月17日，Jon Lee在VIZZIO官网上发表道歉声明，称其虚报学历是严重的错误判断，并充分认识了这一做法的严重性。并且他也表示，董事会和股东已决定其将继续担任VIZZIO的首席执行官，而该公司的领导团队也正在实施额外的治理措施来维护VIZZIO的诚信。

但这一系列的举措似乎并没能平复VIZZIO已然扩散开来的波澜。在接下来的日子里，一方面，VIZZIO的部分合作伙伴公司对媒体表示，将重新考虑与VIZZIO的合作关系。另一方面，在VIZZIO的官网中，包括淡马锡理工学院、新加坡资讯通信媒体发展局、新加坡地铁机构SMRT等在内的众多政府机构的相关合作标识也被纷纷删除。并且尽管新加坡科技局的Logo仍在其列，该机构对外称，VIZZIO只是在2020年时向其展示了技术能力，但科技局没有继续采购任何产品、也不是VIZZIO的现有客户。此外，据了解，李开复也已在造假事件曝光前的1月12日辞去了在VIZZIO董事会的职务。

截至发稿日，VIZZIO官网首页中的客户伙伴���部分已被移除。作为参照，有消息称，在1月25日时，其展示的合作客户数量仅剩10家。（该公司官网的安全证书也已在近期过期）。

而随着创始人学历造假事件的揭露，VIZZIO所面临的困境也没有就此止步。无论是针对其宣传的专利数量的质疑还是对于发布视频方面的涉嫌抄袭行为以及Jon Lee的再度言行不一——其曾在采访中否认向投资者发送了伪造的博士学历证书，但又在后续承认进行了这一行为，VIZZIO显然正在进入一个更加棘手的局面。最终，在上��晚些时候，VIZZIO在其官网宣布，公司将组建“强化领导团队”，其首席营销官David See已被任命为公司的临时首席执行官。而这意味着，Jon Lee已经不再担任VIZZIO的首席执行官职位。不过，他也在此前曾对媒体表示，其正在寻找人来接替他的角色，以便“快速离开”新加坡，在幕后从事VIZZIO的工作。

时间来到本月，目前，VIZZIO的一系列风波似乎也已告下了一个段落，并未有任何关于VIZZIO或者Jon Lee的新动向出现。但相比于VIZZIO在这段说长不长说短不短的时间里为外界所呈现了怎样的波折以及接下来它还会走向何方，面对步入更加快速发展阶段的新加坡乃至东南亚科创市场，尽管可能只是个案、并且对一家公司来说技术门槛可能是更为重要的体现（或者需求），在VIZZIO之后，一些人们可能也会去更加关注”创业到底是一件怎样的事情“。当然，在时间面前，关于这个问题的答案也不并需要谁来回答。

[leaujongyongnews]

Crypto Scammer Sean Kirtz Arrested For Animal Torture In Boca Raton

Kirtz Ordered To Pay $405K In Crypto Suit, Then Sued By Local Real Estate Firm. Now Animal Torture Arrest.

BOCA RATON, FL - Boca Raton resident Sean Kirtz is facing an animal torture charge following his arrest by Boca Raton Police on Wednesday. Kirtz, of St. Andrews Blvd., was booked into jail at 11:49 on Wednesday morning. He was released on $3,000 bond just before 2 a.m. Thursday.

Kirtz, in late 2021, was accused of not taking care of “Isabella,” a dog described as a “black/brown juvenile Australian Shepherd mix,” after a babysitter discovered the animal in poor condition and took it to Boca Veterinary Clinic. The clinic reported Isabella’s poor condition to Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control which initiated procedures to take custody of the animal.

According to a court filing: “Dr. Ana Poeck, DVM, testified that she examined Isabella (aka Izzy) on December 15, 2021. She testified that Izzy was underweight, unkempt, she had an ear infection, she had scabs on her face and head, had bruising in her groin area, and had wounds on her body. Dr. Poeck testified that Isabella was in, “all kinds of discomfort.” Isabella was very thirsty and hungry; she drank a whole bowl of water in the clinic and readily ate all the treats offered. Dr. Poeck testified that it was very unusual for a well-cared for pet to be that thirsty and hungry. Most of the diagnostics and medications suggested by Dr. Poeck were declined. Dr. Poeck testified that she called Mr. Kirtz but he did not seem interested in speaking to her.”

“On December 26, 2021, Officers from ACC responded to Mr. Kirt’s home located at 20913 Saint Andrews Boulevard, Boca Raton, Florida 33433 in response to the complaint. ACC Officer Mitchell testified that he and Officer Arguelles inspected Isabella and noted that she had obvious wounds on her arms, legs, and back. Mr. Kirtz did not know what was wrong with Isabella and wasn’t able to provide any veterinary records showing medical care for her.”

Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control took Isabella and has nursed her back to health. On February 7th, Palm Beach County Judge Edward Garrison entered an order prohibiting Kirtz from possessing animals. Read the complete order, below. It was not immediately clear if Kirtz’s arrest on Wednesday is part of this ongoing case, or a new matter now being prosecuted. We will update with the arrest report once it is released.

Sean Kirtz was accused of running a Crytpo Currency scam in 2018 and ordered by a federal judge to pay $405,000 to a disgruntled investor. He was subsequently sued by “Florida’s Best Realty Services” after allegedly posting negative reviews when the company claimed he frauduently filed a lease application.