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Imitation Nation

Imitation Nation

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A proposito di questo titolo
 Imitation Nation is a podcast that covers all things counterfeit, hosted by Shabbir Imber Safdar and Sven Bergmann.Copyright 2025 All rights reserved. Crimini reali Disturbo fisico e malattia Igiene e vita sana
Episodi
  • Imitation Nation Podcast No 39 Counterfeit News Video

    Imitation Nation Podcast No 39 Counterfeit News Video
    Oct 13 2026
    Imitation Nation Episode 39 is now available! In this episode, we explore two major cases of fraud and counterfeiting—one involving fake postage labels that cost the US Postal Service over a hundred million dollars, and another involving an international scheme of counterfeit Apple devices. These stories reveal the complexities of brand protection, the importance of robust security systems, and the ongoing battle against counterfeiters. Transcript: Shabbir (00:02) All right, welcome to Imitation Nation number thirty nine. It is a federal holiday today, which means that Sven and I don't have hair and makeup support. Which, you know usually with Sven (00:14) Hair and makeup support for me would be very short lived. It's just or or or it takes a long Shabbir (00:24) Usually we look better than this, but you know, the hair and makeup talent is not in the office today. Sven (00:30) A as I said before, I have a face made for radio and you know, so here we go. Anyways, good to see you, my friend. Shabbir (00:37) Good to see you traveling for the rest of the week. Sven (00:40) I'm traveling for the rest of week. My daughter qualified for national championships with her sport and so we're gonna be heading to Pennsylvania and Maryland, and I'm quite excited to see her compete. So it'll be great. Shabbir (00:54) That's great. She's a equestrian, is that right? Sven (00:57) She is an equestrian, yes. So it's hunter jumper and she qualified for indoors nationals and super proud of her. In her first national, she placed fourth in nation. And so we'll see how the other indoors goes. And she's she's very in talented and very proud of her. Shabbir (01:14) Good dad moment. Sven (01:15) Thank you. Shabbir (01:18) so I wanted to start with the big story that happened this week. You know how I love a good Sven (01:23) All right. Shabbir (01:24) fake stamp story. I love fake stamps. Sven (01:26) It does That's true. Shabbir (01:30) this past within the past two weeks, the Department of Justice charged a Pakistani national with selling five million postage labels, shipping labels. Sven (01:40) Wow. Shabbir (01:40) That caused, by their calculation, the Postal Service to lose over a hundred million dollars in revenue. So you know Sven (01:47) Wow, that's crazy. Shabbir (01:50) you know how you take your package to the post office and maybe you already printed out the shipping label or they print it out and they weigh it and they figure out where it's going and they figure out what it's supposed to cost? Sven (02:00) Wow. Yeah. Shabbir (02:02) So these guys basically figured out a way to generate counterfeit labels, which were worth two dollars, regardless of where you were shipping your package and regardless of how big it was or how much it cost. And then they sold them online basically in batches, through this website, labelsbank dot com, to over five thousand people. And you can't look at the website except through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine anymore, because the government seized the domain name and took it over. as part of their as part of their indictment. Sven (02:33) Incredible. Incredible. yeah the case the case is the case is amazing and the the screenshots you have and I hope you put them with show notes. But like what are all the charges that there were were were charged with that are levied against them and like who brought the case ultimately? Shabbir (02:49) So the charges actually use the word forged and counterfeit stamps, but a stamp can really be just anything that is an official record, official like postage produced by the post office. they have conspiracy to defraud the US, can the conspiracy to make and sell forged and counterfeit stamps, and of course, because the whole thing was done primarily electronically, wire fraud. And it was the postal Sven (03:13) Course. Shabbir (03:13) inspectors of Miami who brought the case. although, you know, the the defendants in one of the defendants, there's there's a number of co conspirators at once in Pakistan, so nobody appeared in court. Sven (03:26) Yeah, wire wire fraud is interesting. So is is the wire fraud a charge that that you need to commit the predicate crime, or is is a is it a predicate for other crimes? Like which one comes first? Shabbir (03:39) So it is a standalone charge. You can get charged with wire Sven (03:41) Okay. Shabbir (03:42) fraud on its own. But yeah, in in the world of prosecutors, and I'm not a lawyer, so don't take my advice if you're charging somebody. sometimes you need to prove one case to prove one charge to have access to another charge. And the most famous of those are RICO and money laundering. So wire fraud Sven (03:59) Right. Shabbir (04:00) is a predicate crime. If you have been charged with wire fraud, Then a prosecutor can justify also charging you with RICO or money laundering. Money laundering is a big one, you know. In the counterfeiting world, it is hard to get people for money laundering unless they...
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    28 min
  • Imitation Nation Podcast No 39 Counterfeit News Audio

    Imitation Nation Podcast No 39 Counterfeit News Audio
    Oct 13 2026
    Imitation Nation Episode 39 is now available! In this episode, we explore two major cases of fraud and counterfeiting—one involving fake postage labels that cost the US Postal Service over a hundred million dollars, and another involving an international scheme of counterfeit Apple devices. These stories reveal the complexities of brand protection, the importance of robust security systems, and the ongoing battle against counterfeiters. Transcript: Shabbir (00:02) All right, welcome to Imitation Nation number thirty nine. It is a federal holiday today, which means that Sven and I don't have hair and makeup support. Which, you know usually with Sven (00:14) Hair and makeup support for me would be very short lived. It's just or or or it takes a long Shabbir (00:24) Usually we look better than this, but you know, the hair and makeup talent is not in the office today. Sven (00:30) A as I said before, I have a face made for radio and you know, so here we go. Anyways, good to see you, my friend. Shabbir (00:37) Good to see you traveling for the rest of the week. Sven (00:40) I'm traveling for the rest of week. My daughter qualified for national championships with her sport and so we're gonna be heading to Pennsylvania and Maryland, and I'm quite excited to see her compete. So it'll be great. Shabbir (00:54) That's great. She's a equestrian, is that right? Sven (00:57) She is an equestrian, yes. So it's hunter jumper and she qualified for indoors nationals and super proud of her. In her first national, she placed fourth in nation. And so we'll see how the other indoors goes. And she's she's very in talented and very proud of her. Shabbir (01:14) Good dad moment. Sven (01:15) Thank you. Shabbir (01:18) so I wanted to start with the big story that happened this week. You know how I love a good Sven (01:23) All right. Shabbir (01:24) fake stamp story. I love fake stamps. Sven (01:26) It does That's true. Shabbir (01:30) this past within the past two weeks, the Department of Justice charged a Pakistani national with selling five million postage labels, shipping labels. Sven (01:40) Wow. Shabbir (01:40) That caused, by their calculation, the Postal Service to lose over a hundred million dollars in revenue. So you know Sven (01:47) Wow, that's crazy. Shabbir (01:50) you know how you take your package to the post office and maybe you already printed out the shipping label or they print it out and they weigh it and they figure out where it's going and they figure out what it's supposed to cost? Sven (02:00) Wow. Yeah. Shabbir (02:02) So these guys basically figured out a way to generate counterfeit labels, which were worth two dollars, regardless of where you were shipping your package and regardless of how big it was or how much it cost. And then they sold them online basically in batches, through this website, labelsbank dot com, to over five thousand people. And you can't look at the website except through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine anymore, because the government seized the domain name and took it over. as part of their as part of their indictment. Sven (02:33) Incredible. Incredible. yeah the case the case is the case is amazing and the the screenshots you have and I hope you put them with show notes. But like what are all the charges that there were were were charged with that are levied against them and like who brought the case ultimately? Shabbir (02:49) So the charges actually use the word forged and counterfeit stamps, but a stamp can really be just anything that is an official record, official like postage produced by the post office. they have conspiracy to defraud the US, can the conspiracy to make and sell forged and counterfeit stamps, and of course, because the whole thing was done primarily electronically, wire fraud. And it was the postal Sven (03:13) Course. Shabbir (03:13) inspectors of Miami who brought the case. although, you know, the the defendants in one of the defendants, there's there's a number of co conspirators at once in Pakistan, so nobody appeared in court. Sven (03:26) Yeah, wire wire fraud is interesting. So is is the wire fraud a charge that that you need to commit the predicate crime, or is is a is it a predicate for other crimes? Like which one comes first? Shabbir (03:39) So it is a standalone charge. You can get charged with wire Sven (03:41) Okay. Shabbir (03:42) fraud on its own. But yeah, in in the world of prosecutors, and I'm not a lawyer, so don't take my advice if you're charging somebody. sometimes you need to prove one case to prove one charge to have access to another charge. And the most famous of those are RICO and money laundering. So wire fraud Sven (03:59) Right. Shabbir (04:00) is a predicate crime. If you have been charged with wire fraud, Then a prosecutor can justify also charging you with RICO or money laundering. Money laundering is a big one, you know. In the counterfeiting world, it is hard to get people for money laundering unless they...
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    28 min
  • Imitation Nation Podcast No 38 Counterfeit News VIDEO

    Imitation Nation Podcast No 38 Counterfeit News VIDEO
    Sep 28 2026
    In this episode, we explore the latest developments in counterfeit pill presses, vinyl records, and counterfeit products, highlighting law enforcement efforts, legislative updates, and the importance of industry collaboration. Transcript: 00:00:00:03 - 00:00:23:03 Speaker 1 So in South Carolina, this guy walks into a Dollar General with counterfeit bills like bleached tens that they printed 50s on, and he tries to give them to the cashier to load them on to like an app for like a card. And the cashier looks at them, realizes they're fake, and says, I cannot accept these. And so guess what? 00:00:23:05 - 00:00:25:07 Speaker 1 Guess what? The guy says to the cashier. 00:00:25:08 - 00:00:26:22 Speaker 2 I don't know. 00:00:27:00 - 00:00:30:14 Speaker 1 Can I have those back? 00:00:30:16 - 00:00:43:19 Speaker 1 And the Dollar General cashier, who's probably seen everything because they're a Dollar General cashier, is like, no. And the guy goes to his car and and he's driving to Audie. One of the other employees walks out and takes a picture of the car and the license plate as he. 00:00:43:19 - 00:00:50:14 Speaker 2 Drives away. Yeah, it's not always the brightest bulbs that that do this. That's funny. 00:00:50:15 - 00:00:58:11 Unknown The Imitation Nation podcast covers all things counterfeit, hosted by Shabbir Amber Schaffner of the partnership for Safe Medicines and Sven Bergmann of Venture Global. 00:00:58:16 - 00:01:06:15 Speaker 1 All right, Sven, welcome back to Imitation Nation number 38. And one of my favorite topics is the first story. Guess what that is? 00:01:06:17 - 00:01:13:05 Speaker 2 Well, it's normally counterfeit money, but I don't think that's our first story. So peel presses. 00:01:13:07 - 00:01:14:14 Speaker 1 Is all Bill presents. 00:01:14:18 - 00:01:15:20 Speaker 2 So I thought. 00:01:15:22 - 00:01:46:10 Speaker 1 So often when you see someone who a law enforcement agency that has raided and playing this in drug lab, there's often a pill press in that drug lab, right? And sometimes it's made by a company called Elephant Machines. And LFA machines is one of the biggest, well, most well-known makers of pill presses in the world. And three of their longtime employees and executives just got indicted for six counts. 00:01:46:12 - 00:02:07:07 Speaker 1 Wow. As well as the company itself. They haven't been tried yet. They've just been indicted and I think arrested. So all of this, all of these accusations by the Department of Justice are alleged. But basically they said that they were knowingly selling pill presses to people that they knew were going to make counterfeit, controlled substance pills. 00:02:07:08 - 00:02:10:16 Speaker 2 Wow. That is incredible. 00:02:10:18 - 00:02:32:18 Speaker 1 This investigation has been going since 2019, and it was led by DEA Tucson in Arizona, which is also where the current administrator of the DEA, Shari Oz, was. She was a special agent in charge in Arizona of one of the officers. So that is. Yeah, good friend of ours. Good, good friend of of protecting Americans from fake pills. 00:02:32:18 - 00:02:50:18 Speaker 1 She has seen everything. Yeah. So they were due in court last week on the 23rd. I don't remember what I was doing that day, but I was not paying attention to it. And the DOJ has been very clear that they have recovered their machines from clandestine drug labs all over the world. 00:02:50:23 - 00:03:16:06 Speaker 2 Wow. And okay, that's you don't have any speechless often, but because you and I have talked about pill presses a lot. Right. And so normally it's the like, oh, yeah, those are some makers in China. And, you know, they're hard to get. That's the first like executives, which I believe are U.S. executives. So what exactly is the government alleging they did that led to this indictment and arrest? 00:03:16:07 - 00:03:38:15 Speaker 1 So there's not a lot of detail in the complaint. But if you look at it, they talk about that LFA had a do not sell to list and that somehow they can even though they discussed people that should not be sold to, they still sold the machines. They also site. And I'm not sure that this is as on on his easy legal ground. 00:03:38:15 - 00:04:01:11 Speaker 1 But they talk about how the firm a press powder that they sell, which is what you use. You mix in your active ingredient with the powder. And the powder, when it's in, a machine binds together and holds together to make a pill. They talk about how it comes in these colors that just mysteriously and perfectly mimic the counterfeit controlled substances and criminals like to make. 00:04:01:12 - 00:04:28:21 Speaker 1 And we don't know a lot of the details, but the agent who who signed the complaint said that he saw multiple covert, controlled purchases of tablet machines and powder being sold to people that the defendants had talked about or placed on the do not sell to list. So there's clearly more story there, and LFA has not had a chance to respond ...
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    24 min
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