Efforts with Cisco lead to the dismantling of counterfeit rings

For years, Amazon’s Counterfeit Crime Unit (CCU) has collaborated with Cisco to protect our joint customers and the Cisco brand from counterfeit products. Through criminal referrals to law enforcement, joint actions have successfully dismantled two illegal counterfeit networks and led to bad actors serving prison time and fines for their crimes.

Collaboration with brands is critical Working with brands to investigate and gather intelligence on bad actors’ attempts to sell counterfeit products is a key component of the CCU’s work. Using that information, our teams take action to protect customers and brands, including removing problematic listings, blocking accounts, and referring bad actors to law enforcement. However, the work doesn’t stop there. We then work with brands to refer these cases to law enforcement to hold bad actors accountable for their crimes.

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Following a joint referral and government investigation, on October 23, 2024, a federal court in New Jersey sentenced Israfil Demir to 364 days in prison with three years of supervised release. Previously, the same US District Court sentenced his two co-conspirators, Sadri Ozturan, to five months in prison and five months of home confinement, and Musa Karaman to 364 days in prison with three years of supervised release. All three individuals pled guilty to trafficking in counterfeit goods and sold as much as $1.5M in counterfeit Cisco products.

The sentencing of the Demir ring follows the actions against an even larger counterfeit operation in May of this year when the US District Court for the District of New Jersey sentenced Onur Aksoy to six years and six months in prison for running a large-scale illicit operation selling counterfeit Cisco products. Aksoy operated numerous companies and dozens of online storefronts that imported thousands of counterfeit Cisco products from across the globe to sell in the U.S., generating millions of dollars in illegal sales. The sentencing is the result of a joint criminal referral filed by Amazon and Cisco, and represents a significant step toward the common goal of dismantling international counterfeit organizations.