3 Men Arrested in Scheme to Sell Counterfeit Car Parts

Federal authorities arrested three men Tuesday on charges of selling counterfeit brake pads and other automotive parts to repair shops, including those that service the city’s yellow taxis and licensed livery cabs, officials said. The brake pads were deceptively packaged to appear as though they were made by Ford, General Motors and other leading manufacturers, the authorities said. Agents from theFederal Bureau of investigationraided several locations on Tuesday in connection with the case, including a warehouse in Astoria, Queens. The defendants, Shashi Malhotra, Fadi Kilani and Richard Dininni, were arrested at their homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the authorities said. As of Tuesday afternoon, at least two of the men had not been arraigned. They face charges of conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods. The top official in the F.B.I.’s New York office, George Venizelos, characterized their conduct as fraud. The United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, described the products as “the automobile replacement parts equivalent of designer knockoffs,” but suggested that the quality of the products themselves“may have been no different from many other generic parts sold every day.” Indeed, there was little immediate evidence that the brake pads were faulty or that drivers or passengers had been endangered. TheTaxi and Limousine Commissiontests the brake systems of the city’s taxi fleet three times a year, and the failure rate has been relatively level in recent years, a commission spokesman, Allan Fromberg, said. “There is no evidence to suggest any negative effects from the generic parts in question,” Mr. Fromberg said. “Our inspection process is such that if it passes muster with our highly trained inspectors and our state-of-the-art equipment, it’s as safe as any part regardless of the manufacturer.” The commission’s top official, David Yassky, said in a statement that “the public may remain confident in the safety of New York City taxicabs,” but he added that “successfully keeping counterfeiters like these at bay is crucial.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/nyregion/three-men-arrested-in-scheme-to-sell-counterfeit-automotive-parts.html?_r=0