Counterfeiters Beware!

Where do ICE Agents go shopping? 

       A.    El Paso, TX  Fox Plaza Flea Market

       B.     D. C. Farmers Market

       C.     Homestead  Bargain Town Flea Market

       D.     Houston Flea Markets

       E.     All of the above

How long will the vendors selling counterfeit Nike athletic shoes, DVDs and CDs at the local flea market get by with those sales until someone from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) comes to visit? In the last couple of years, flea markets all over the country have been the target of ICE agents.

On Sunday April 15, 2012, agents from the ICE Home Land Security Investigations (HIS) team seized over 20,000 counterfeit items worth almost $900,000.  Among the goods seized were:

• 8,911 DVDs;
• 10,699 CDs; and
• 1,728 items including purses, sports merchandise and Nike athletic shoes.

"Counterfeiting is a significant problem that affects our economy, impacts American jobs, and puts the public's health and safety at risk," said Dennis A. Ulrich, special agent in charge for HSI El Paso. "Consumers who buy pirated products may also be funding criminal organizations with their purchases."

Without enforcement, manufacturers will continue produce lower cost inferior goods that violate trademark, copyright and patent laws.  Some of these inferior goods could be hazardous to consumer’s health because they are not manufactured under the same regulations and processes as the patented or trademarked goods. Trade in counterfeit goods also costs the true owners around the world billions of dollars annually. 

If you shop at a flea market and find name brands such as Nike, Calvin Klein, NFL and other recognized brands at a price that sounds too good to be true, the goods may be counterfeit.  Do your part to protect intellectual property rights.  If you discover name brand goods that are being sold in unusual locations and at a price that is artificially low for the brand, report the information to the IPR Center by contacting the toll-free hotlin3e at 866-IPR-2060 or completing the online tip form at http://www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp

If you are a vendor selling counterfeit goods, every day is a gamble with your freedom and finances.  The sweet elderly lady buying the counterfeit Coach purse or the teenager buying the counterfeit CDs from your booth could be undercover ICE agents!

Source:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (2012, April 20).   ICE seizes nearly $900,000 in counterfeit merchandise at El Paso flea market. http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1204/120420elpaso.htm

Import Recordkeeping

Title 19 Part 163 of the Code of Federal Regulations provides recordkeeping requirements for importers, brokers and other entities involved in importing.  Importers and brokers must maintain records for five years from the date of entry, or five years from the date of the activity, that created the record.   There are some exceptions to this general rule found in Part 163.  Importers should also check with the other government agencies that they work with for their specific record retention requirements.

What are import-related documents? Some of the documents importers and brokers must maintain include entry summaries, commercial invoices, emails and any other document created that relates to the import shipment. Almost anything can be a record. Even if a document is not required to be produced at the time of entry, the document must still be maintained for post-entry audits.  Importers and brokers might consider using a checklist to keep track of records.

CBP usually requests information by entry number; however, importers should cross-reference the entry number with their internal reference such as invoice number for ease of retrieval. Given an entry number, the importer should be able to produce any of the required documents related to the entry.  If CBP requests payment records to foreign suppliers for a specific entry, could you produce them?

Penalties for failure to maintain proper records range from $10,000 per incident to $100,000 per incident. Penalties for willful failure to maintain, store or retrieve records will be up to the lesser of $100,000 or 75% of the appraised value of the merchandise per entry.  Penalties for negligence in maintaining, storing or retrieving records will be up to the lesser of $10,000 or 40% of the appraised value per entry.

Click HERE to read detailed regulations on recordkeeping. 

 

Quiz

During an audit of Acme Importing, CBP discovered that Acme was negligent in maintaining records on 5 of the 100 import entries reviewed.  CBP assessed recordkeeping penalties for negligence on the five entries. Given the following values for each entry, what is the total amount of penalty Acme can expect to receive?

Entry 1                        $15,000

Entry 2                        $45,500

Entry 3                        $20,000

Entry 4                        $12,500

Entry 5                        $18,000

Answer:
 

$111,000 x 40% = $44,400