FBI sting busts Microsoft, Symantec counterfeiters
The FBI and Chinese authorities have broken up a crime syndicate that was peddling hundreds of millions of dollars of counterfeit software from Microsoft and Symantec.
The joint operation, which was codenamed "Summer Solstice" and included members of the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Public Security, led law enforcement to make 25 arrests and seize more than $7 million in assets and about $500 million in pirated software, the FBI said this week in a statement.
Agents with the FBI’s Los Angeles office personally conducted 24 searches, netting them about $2 million in counterfeit software products and assets totaling about $700,000, the agency said. One of the groups, known as MA Ke Pei, sold counterfeit goods to U.S.-based distributors.
