Beijing police announced the investigation of the largest cross-border trademark counterfeit case in recent years, involving illegal retail value of more than 120 million yuan ($19.3 million).

The announcement on Saturday said it is also the first case involving a large quantity of counterfeit cellphones found in the bonded area of Shunyi district in Beijing.

Police said the investigation started in early May, when a shipment of fake branded cellphones made in China were seized in the United States. With the help of a number of other agencies, including customs, police tracked down the fraudulent company in the bonded area.

The police's economic crime division found that the company, which had hundreds of employees and was headed up by a 43-year-old man surnamed Yu and his wife, had purchased used cellphone chips overseas, claiming to be involved in the phone maintenance and repair business, since 2011.

The company also bought fake trademark labels and other components, such as back covers, from Shenzhen in Guangdong province, assembled them and then sold them abroad.

Law enforcement officials raided the company on May 15 and found 1,400 finished counterfeit cellphones and more than 1 million accessories, as well as six assembly lines. Nine suspects were detained.

The suspects confessed that they produced as many as 41,000 fake mobile phones since January, as well as 66,000 flexible printed circuits, according to Legal Daily.

The economic crime division of Beijing police launched a crackdown campaign in April against intellectual property rights violations. They have so far investigated in 55 such cases, with nearly 100 suspects arrested.

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/29/2015 page17)