5 years in US prison for Cisco counterfeiter

Zhao Chun-Yu, 43, of Centreville, Virginia, was also ordered by US District Court Judge Gerald Bruce Lee to pay $2.7 million in restitution and a $17,500 fine.

Zhao was stripped of her US citizenship and is to serve three years of supervised release following her prison sentence.

In addition, Zhao was ordered to forfeit assets including two Porsches, a Mercedes, seven bank accounts containing more than $1.6 million, and four homes and three condominiums with a total value of more than $2.6 million.

Zhao was convicted by a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, in May of conspiracy to commit importation fraud and 15 additional counts, including making false statements to law enforcement on her US citizenship application.

Another defendant, Donald Cone, of Frederick, Maryland, was also convicted of conspiracy.

According to prosecutors, Zhao, Cone and Zhao's relatives in China operated a counterfeit computer networking equipment business called Han Tong Technology (Hong Kong) Ltd.

Zhao and her associates ran a Virginia-based company called JDC Networking Inc. that created labels and packaging in order to mislead consumers into believing the products it sold were genuine Cisco products, they said.

(c) 2011 AFP