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Three men, aged 26, 35 and 38, who contravened the Copyright Ordinance and Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance were today (May 28) given prison sentences ranging from 31.5 to 73.5 months by the District Court. The 73.5 months' sentence is the heaviest of its kind so far.
Three men were arrested during a Customs anti-piracy crackdown, codenamed "Operation Glacier" on August 4, 2005, for operating a pirated disc replicating workshop, two storage centres and three retail outlets. In the operation, customs officers seized more than 100,000 pirated discs, 16 sets of replicating machines, each installed with a CD-ROM and 8 disk writers - a total worth of about $2 million.
Customs subsequently applied for a Restraint Order under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance for freezing $4 million worth of assets suspected to be proceeds derived from sales of pirated discs under the control of the syndicate.
The Group Head of the Special Task Force of Customs and Excise Department, Mr Albert Chan, today warned that copyright piracy was a serious offence and offenders would be liable to severe punishment upon conviction, including forfeiture of all crime-related assets.
"Since the scheduling of the Copyright Ordinance under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance in 2000, this is the third copyright piracy case in which the offenders were prosecuted for money laundering," he said.
"The sentences passed at the District Court is encouraging to the anti-piracy work of the Hong Kong Customs. It has conveyed a clear message to the pirates that their illegitimate deals are not accepted by the community and will lead to severe punishment," he said.
In accordance with the District Court's verdict, Customs' Financial Investigation Group is preparing documents for making an application to the High Court for forfeiture of the frozen assets of more than $1 million.
Including this case, the Customs has invoked the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance in the prosecution of five cases related to infringement of intellectual property rights and the frozen assets amounted to $74 million.
Ends/Monday, May 28, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:02
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