Apple is planning to present police officers in South Korea with a plaque to celebrate their work cracking down on almost $1 million worth of fake accessories.
The fake products were supposedly shipped in from China under the guise of being official Apple products. Their distributors are under investigation for potential fraud and trademark violation.
The shipment was stopped by police at Bucheon Sosa Police Station in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. The contents of the shipment reportedly included fake earphones and charging cables. The officers arrested the suspects. To thank them, Apple’s senior regional director for Apple’s Asia-Pacific operations, Donald Shruhan, will visit the station this week. Among Shruhan’s jobs is leading Apple’s anti-counterfeiting operations in China.
Shruhan has previously expressed his concerns about the volume of fake Apple products coming from China. In a communication with Steve Jobs one decade ago, Shruhan advised that one solution could be “low-profile retail raids,” for a company like Apple that “wants to stay away from too much publicity surrounding this issue.”
From the sound of things, 10 years on, the problem continues — which likely explains why Apple is so grateful when law enforcement is able to help out.
Source: Korea Herald
