News Releases and Statements

The IPR Center, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) as well as CTAM, the industry marketing organization, today announced a multi-layered partnership designed to strengthen innovation and collaboration within the organizations’ collective content protection efforts.

The MOU focuses on vital areas of intellectual property, brand protection and anti-counterfeiting strategies, which have become extremely important in the current global economy. The agreement will also facilitate knowledge transfer between the center and university to share mutually beneficial information, research and technology that will advance intellectual property enforcement.

On July 15, 2020, Hang “Henry” Chen, an employee of CBK, CBK International, and Silicon Electronics, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Donato to four months incarceration with three-years supervised release, a $75,000 fine, and restitution up to $137,000.

HSI launched Operation Stolen Promise in April 2020 to protect the Homeland from the increasing and evolving threat posed by COVID-19-related fraud and criminal activity.

CWD, LLC, which operates under the name Centric Parts, a Delaware corporation headquartered in Carson, and its affiliates have agreed to pay $8 million to the United States to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act and the Tariff Act of 1930 by knowingly underpaying customs duties owed to the United States on imported brake pads.

Ukrainian nationals Maksym Nienadov, 36, and Volodymyr Nikolaienko, 33, pleaded guilty July 17 in the Southern District of Texas to conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit drugs and smuggling goods into the United States. Nienadov also admitted to introducing misbranded medicine into the U.S.

Since the start of the pandemic, HSI and other law enforcement agencies have seen a significant increase in criminals attempting to capitalize and profit from the fear and anxiety surrounding the virus, including the sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and medical equipment and illicit online sales and trade importation violations of products claiming to be treatment options.

Frank Richard Ludlow, 59, of West Sussex, United Kingdom, was charged with one count of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, a felony offense that carries a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison.

ICE's HSI special agents seized nearly 127,000 counterfeit items, retailing at more than $2.5 million dollars, during a six-day enforcement action leading up to the NBA All-Star Game.