FEBRUARY 25, 2000

BROOKLYN RESIDENT CHARGED WITH SELLING COUNTERFEIT CDS FROM HIS 63rd STREET SUBWAY SHOE SHOP

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced this week the arrest of a Brooklyn resident for illegally obtaining, packaging and selling counterfeit CDS from racks in his shoe repair shop in the subway stop at 96-22 Queens Boulevard. Over one thousand counterfeit CDS by artists such as Marc Anthony, Cher and Phil Collins sat beside shoe polish and lined the walls of the defendant's small underground store.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendant, Uriel Aminov, 47, of 12-01 Penn Avenue, Brooklyn is charged with trademark counterfeiting, criminal possession of forgery devises and failure to disclose the origin of a recording in the second degree. He faces up to 3 years in prison if convicted.

According to the charges, the defendant had expanded his commercial offerings to include racks of CDS. The modest store also allegedly contained a color copier and a shrink wrap machine tucked away behind a partition. It is alleged that he obtained the illegal copies and used the expensive pieces of machinery to copy CD covers for insertion into empty 'jewel cases' to make the counterfeits look more like legitimate recordings.

District Attorney Brown said, "Counterfeit recordings are no real bargain for the consumer. They often are flawed reproductions which cheat the consumer as well as the artist. We urge consumers to bypass these fraudulent products."

District Attorney Brown praised the work of the Recording Industry Association of America in helping to identify counterfeit CDS. The investigation was conducted by Lt. Robert Gross, Sgt. John Johnson and Detectives James Torrellas and Peter Zinna of the New York Police Department's Special Frauds Squad.

Assistant District Attorney Jeanetta Alexander of District Attorney Brown's Economic Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Michael Mansfield, will prosecute the case.

It is to be noted that a charge is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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