"The scope of this case is unprecedented," said US Attorney Debra Yang on Thursday. "In one indictment, we have charged both the manufacturers who supplied the counterfeit items and the distributors who flooded the market with the bogus goods," she explained. "Rest assured that we will be looking at all who are involved in this underground black market."
The indictment alleges that four individuals from California produced bulk quantities of Symantec, Adobe and Microsoft software and documentation, which were then delivered to five other defendants who operated a counterfeit software distribution enterprise from Washington State and Texas. An eleventh defendant, also from California, is alleged to have processed the payments for the counterfeit products in Los Angeles.
As well as the 11 arrests, Operation Digital Marauder led to the seizure of over $56 million of counterfeit software, an industrial CD replicator and sophisticated printing equipment, according to the Department of Justice.
"Today's indictment marks an important milestone in our mission to curb intellectual property theft," said Attorney General John Ashcroft. "The theft of intellectual property is a multi-billion dollar fraud that not only steals money from the creators of such ideas, but it also victimises the American consumer. When industry is forced to increase prices in order to recoup the money lost due to theft, we all pay those costs."
The defendants were due to be arraigned yesterday and if convicted face prison sentences of between 15 and 75 years.