Police seize haul of fake mobile phone batteries
Police seize haul of fake mobile phone batteries
JAKARTA (JP): City police detectives arrested on Saturday the
owner of a small factory in Central Jakarta which allegedly
produced fake cellular phone batteries.
The suspect, Antoni, 32, was arrested following a raid on
Thursday at the four-story factory, which also functioned as a
distributing agent for the products, on Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta.
"Police arrested 10 employees of the small factory, including
manager Denny Setiawan and technician Dadang Rusandi," city
police detectives chief Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo said in a
media conference at city police headquarters on Sunday.
Denny and Dadang identified Antoni as the owner of the
factory, said Alex.
"Police began a hunt for Antoni and arrested him in a hotel in
Central Jakarta."
Alex said the police seized 600 fake cellular phone batteries
of brands including Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens, Motorola and
Samsung, hundreds of labels, three battery-pressing machines and
hundreds of battery components.
"Police also confiscated hundreds of unfinished fake cellular
phone batteries." Alex added that the factory was in operation
when the raid occurred.
Antoni reportedly admitted he did not have an industrial
business permit, which is required for the establishment of a
factory here.
"He also did not have licenses from cellular phone battery
producers to produce the batteries."
The suspect ran the factory since last August with a capacity
of 500 cellular phone batteries per day, he said.
"The suspect said that it was his own idea to operate the
factory since he is interested in electronics."
Alex said Antoni was a dropout of a school of electrical
engineering at a private university in Jakarta.
He said the suspect imported materials and components for the
fake cellular phone batteries from China.
"The materials were assembled and packed by the employees,
supervised by the suspect, the factory manager Denny and the
technician Dadang," he said, quoting from Antoni's statement to
police.
Alex said the labels were made by a printing company here on a
subcontract basis.
He said the products were distributed to shops located in the
popular electronic shopping centers Roxy Mas and ITC Mangga Dua,
both in West Jakarta.
"The products were sold for Rp 50,000 each. The shops then
sold the products to the public for Rp 100,000," said Alex.
He said the suspect violated articles 81, 82 and 84 of the
1997 Law on Trademarks for producing and distributing fake
industrial products. Convictions carry a maximum punishment of
seven years in prison.
Alex said Antoni could also be tried for violating Article 382
of the Criminal Code for unfair business practices, which brought
losses to the producers of licensed cellular phone batteries. It
carries a maximum sentence of one year and four months in jail.
The police official said the suspect also violated articles
24, 25, 26 and 27 of the 1984 Law on Industrial Affairs, since
Antoni operated his factory without any industrial business
licenses. The police investigation is under way and police have
yet to decide on the legal status of the 10 employees. (asa)