Security News > 2022 > July > CEO charged with sale of counterfeit Cisco devices to govt, health orgs
Onur Aksoy, the CEO of a group of dozens of companies, was indicted for allegedly selling more than $1 billion worth of counterfeit Cisco network equipment to customers worldwide, including health, military, and government organizations.
These devices were sold as new and genuine Cisco products through dozens of Amazon and eBay storefronts to customers across the United States and overseas, some ending up on the networks of hospitals, schools, government, and military orgs.
This happened because the counterfeiters who sold the fraudulent Cisco equipment to Aksoy were modifying older, lower-model products to make them look like genuine models of new and more expensive Cisco devices.
"As alleged, the Chinese counterfeiters often added pirated Cisco software and unauthorized, low-quality, or unreliable components - including components to circumvent technological measures added by Cisco to the software to check for software license compliance and to authenticate the hardware," a US Department of Justice press release reads.
"Finally, to make the devices appear new, genuine, high-quality, and factory-sealed by Cisco, the Chinese counterfeiters allegedly added counterfeited Cisco labels, stickers, boxes, documentation, packaging, and other materials."
In July 2021, law enforcement agents seized 1,156 counterfeit Cisco devices worth over $7 million after executing a search warrant at Aksoy's warehouse.