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December 4, 2000Go to . . . CCIPS Home Page || Justice Department Home PageSOUTHLAND WOMAN SENTENCED TO ONE YEAR IN PRISON FOR
TRAFFICKING IN COUNTERFEIT COMPUTER SOFTWARE;
JUDGE ORDERS RESTITUTION PAID TO MICROSOFT
A Monterey Park woman was sentenced today to 12 months in federal prison for operating a trafficking ring that purchased and distributed counterfeit Microsoft software, United States Attorney Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced.
Jing Jing Fan Mou, 41, who formerly resided in Sunnyvale, California and Plano, Texas, was sentenced this afternoon by United States District Judge Manuel Real, who ordered the defendant to pay $665,059 in restitution to Microsoft.
Mou pleaded guilty in September to two felony charges: conspiracy and trafficking in counterfeit goods. In a plea agreement filed with the court, Mou acknowledged that she arranged for the purchase of counterfeit Microsoft software from a company called Aventec. Mou caused an accomplice to transport various shipments of the counterfeit products to a co-conspirator at Velocity Computers in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the counterfeit products were, in turn, sold to retail customers.
Mou admitted that the black market value of the counterfeit products in this case - including Microsoft Windows NT Server and Professional Office 1997 software - was more than $600,000.
This case is the product of an ongoing investigation by the United States Customs Service.
This prosecution is part of the Department of Justice's Intellectual Property Rights Initiative.Along with the Customs Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Justice Department prosecutors are targeting piracy and counterfeiting in seven federal judicial districts with ports. The initiative is designed to more effectively investigate and prosecute intellectual property crimes, which is now one of the Department's white collar crime priorities.
Release No. 00-214
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