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Distributor Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Counterfeit Products
Pioneer Breaker admits importing and selling counterfeit Square D brand circuit breakers from Schneider Electric after raid by U.S. Immigration agents.
Texas business owner Tamas Toldy pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of mail fraud and one count of trafficking in counterfeit circuit breakers, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Directorate (ICE HSI).
Toldy owns and operates Pioneer Breaker & Control Supply in Austin, Texas and a related online sales and marketing entity, Nick’s Sales.
Schneider Electric previously sued Toldy and Pioneer Breaker in a civil action in September 2007, alleging that Toldy and his company imported and sold counterfeit Square D brand goods in violation of the Lanham Act and other laws. In February 2010, the parties entered into a settlement agreement to stop the flow of counterfeit goods through Toldy and Pioneer Breaker.
RELATED: Tattle on a Schneider Electric Counterfeiter, Earn Cash
The parties entered into an Agreed Consent Order barring Toldy and Pioneer Breaker from importing and selling circuit breakers displaying counterfeit versions of trademarks registered to Square D. Toldy and Pioneer Breaker also agreed to limit the number of authentic Square D QO 2020 circuit breakers they sold for a period of 10 years. Schneider Electric retained the right to inspect Pioneer Breaker’s inventory.
In April 2010, ICE HSI Special Agents from Jacksonville, Fla., and Austin, Texas, executed a search warrant at Pioneer Breaker’s warehouse in Austin. Several Schneider Electric employees were present for the raid. The Special Agents seized approximately 19,000 counterfeit electrical components and label making equipment. ICE HSI Special Agents later searched a second warehouse in Laredo, Texas, and seized an additional 77,000 counterfeit circuit breakers mislabeled as Square D QO 2020 circuit breakers. ICE HSI estimates that the seized products had a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $4.7 million.
According to the charges, Toldy devised and executed a scheme whereby he traveled to and met with manufacturers in the People’s Republic of China to hire them to copy and reproduce sample circuit breakers.
Toldy also affixed labels bearing the counterfeit trademark of “UL” for “Underwriters Laboratories.” He then used his companies to market and sell the counterfeit goods as legitimate products manufactured by the trademark holders and tested by Underwriters Laboratories.
Toldy will be sentenced by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in April 2012.
Toldy owns and operates Pioneer Breaker & Control Supply in Austin, Texas and a related online sales and marketing entity, Nick’s Sales.
Schneider Electric previously sued Toldy and Pioneer Breaker in a civil action in September 2007, alleging that Toldy and his company imported and sold counterfeit Square D brand goods in violation of the Lanham Act and other laws. In February 2010, the parties entered into a settlement agreement to stop the flow of counterfeit goods through Toldy and Pioneer Breaker.
RELATED: Tattle on a Schneider Electric Counterfeiter, Earn Cash
The parties entered into an Agreed Consent Order barring Toldy and Pioneer Breaker from importing and selling circuit breakers displaying counterfeit versions of trademarks registered to Square D. Toldy and Pioneer Breaker also agreed to limit the number of authentic Square D QO 2020 circuit breakers they sold for a period of 10 years. Schneider Electric retained the right to inspect Pioneer Breaker’s inventory.
In April 2010, ICE HSI Special Agents from Jacksonville, Fla., and Austin, Texas, executed a search warrant at Pioneer Breaker’s warehouse in Austin. Several Schneider Electric employees were present for the raid. The Special Agents seized approximately 19,000 counterfeit electrical components and label making equipment. ICE HSI Special Agents later searched a second warehouse in Laredo, Texas, and seized an additional 77,000 counterfeit circuit breakers mislabeled as Square D QO 2020 circuit breakers. ICE HSI estimates that the seized products had a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $4.7 million.
According to the charges, Toldy devised and executed a scheme whereby he traveled to and met with manufacturers in the People’s Republic of China to hire them to copy and reproduce sample circuit breakers.
Toldy also affixed labels bearing the counterfeit trademark of “UL” for “Underwriters Laboratories.” He then used his companies to market and sell the counterfeit goods as legitimate products manufactured by the trademark holders and tested by Underwriters Laboratories.
Toldy will be sentenced by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in April 2012.
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News · Home Automation and Control · Control Systems · Lighting · Distributors · Electrical · Legal ·About the Author
Jason Knott, Editor, CE Pro
Jason has covered low-voltage electronics as an editor since 1990. He joined EH Publishing in 2000, and before that served as publisher and editor of Security Sales, a leading magazine for the security industry. He served as chairman of the Security Industry Association’s Education Committee from 2000-2004 and sat on the board of that association from 1998-2002. He is also a former board member of the Alarm Industry Research and Educational Foundation. He is currently a member of the CEDIA Education Action Team for Electronic Systems Business. Jason graduated from the University of Southern California.
6 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
-39Stamp, at least we can hope that if one of the fake products he sold was to cause a fire and resulting deaths, that hopefully this guy will get charged with contributing to the death, which would be a much more severe punishment. Not only did he sell fake products but he sold products that are expected to save property and lives. If he had that much inventory during the raid, think of how many of these breakers are in peoples homes and businesses already.
Hopefully no one dies. Even without fatalities he deserves a life sentence.
Steal a $2000 car go to jail for 2-5. Steal millions go to jail for 6 months. Am i the only one noticing that the laws are a little wonky? Where is my aluminum hat?
Jail for life??????
Hit him in the pocketbook,
locate as many as possible who have the counterfeits, and replace them.
Life??
Yes. Life. If Marijuana dealers are given life sentences then those who steal millions and threaten the safety of peoples lives should serve life. It might actually curb some of the behavior.
They should take all of his assets the same way they do with drug dealers. At least the drug dealers are working for their money.
Marijuana dealers should not go to jail and neither should he. This case is about money not about the safety of those products. Those companies are butt hurt that they were not cashing in on what was being sold. There was a need for these products and customers were getting better prices for products that work the same as the originals. Hoping that someone dies so that someone else will get a more severe punishment is a bigger crime than what was already done. It is a shame the way people’s minds work.
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It’s sad that this guy will get a slap on the wrist for breaking multiple federal laws while screwing American businesses and consumers over.
He should spend the rest of his life in prison. There are guys serving life for selling marijuana but this guy will probably get a couple of years and pay a few fines with the money he stole.