"The New York raids are just the latest in a long line of criminal actions that Nintendo is currently supporting."
Nintendo Applauds the FBI -- Four Arrested
for Allegedly Distributing Pirated Nintendo Products
NEW YORK--April 14, 2005--The FBI has arrested four Chinese
nationals in New York for allegedly distributing video game consoles
that contain Nintendo's famous game software. With approximately 40
FBI agents, they seized more than 60,000 illegal products during five
raids on April 13. The illegal products, marketed under the brand name
"Power Player," contain dozens of pirated versions of popular Nintendo
games like Donkey Kong(R), Mario Bros.(R) and Duck Hunt(R).
Authorities say that between September and December 2004, the
defendants imported 27 cargo containers holding more than 280,000
counterfeit video game systems. After several meetings, the defendants
revealed to the undercover FBI agents the locations of their
warehouses and provided information about their distribution network.
On April 13, the undercover agents, posing as toy distributors,
arrested the four defendants and confiscated illegal products,
computers and business records. The FBI conducted accompanying
searches in Queens, N.Y.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Maple Shade, N.J., near
Philadelphia.
"Nintendo applauds the actions taken by the FBI. U.S. law
enforcement authorities have played an instrumental role in attacking
piracy in the U.S. and abroad," says Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of
America's director of anti-piracy. "Nintendo will continue to work
with local, state, national and international authorities to combat
the growing problem of product piracy around the world."
The New York raids are just the latest in a long line of criminal
actions that Nintendo is currently supporting. For more than a decade,
Nintendo of America Inc.'s anti-piracy team has led the charge against
video game piracy around the world. During the first quarter of 2005,
the team reports that more than 80 seizures of counterfeit Nintendo
products were conducted, resulting in the confiscation of close to
180,000 products globally. In another FBI action earlier this month, a
defendant in a Minnesota case pleaded guilty to copyright infringement
and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Highlights of Nintendo's anti-piracy efforts in 2004 included:
-- Nintendo estimated that piracy cost the company more than $860
million in lost sales in 2004 alone.
-- Around the world, authorities seized 1,556,487 counterfeit
Nintendo products in 536 seizure actions in some 30 countries.
-- Nintendo terminated about 194,730 copies of games uploaded to
the Internet and 75,452 auctions of counterfeit products.
-- In October, Nintendo won a preliminary injunction against
kiosk owners selling hardware units with built-in multiple
counterfeit NES games in Washington state. The court order was
critical to persuade mall management companies across the
United States to shut down kiosks in the malls they managed.
Many of the operators were in the United States illegally and
have since been deported to their respective homelands.
-- In China, five people received prison sentences and fines for
manufacturing millions of counterfeit Game Boy(R) game
cartridges. The breakthrough case marked the first time a
counterfeiter of Nintendo products received a prison sentence
in China.
-- In Taiwan, the owner-president and several employees of Yudian
Corp. were convicted on all counts of criminal copyright and
trademark offenses. Taiwan's High Court sentenced the
president's assistant to four years in prison.
