Knoxville Man Pleads Guilty to Copyright Infringement and Trafficking Counterfeit Labels
| U.S. Attorney’s Office June 14, 2012 |
KNOXVILLE—Ernest Chie Ekwuribe, 49, of Knoxville, Tennessee, pleaded guilty today to a two-count indictment charging him with criminal copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit labels, documentation, and packaging. Ekwuribe entered his guilty plea before the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The activities that led to Ekwuribe’s indictment were brought to the attention of the Knoxville Police Department by the Motion Picture Association of America, which had received a confidential complaint of movie piracy by a business owned by the defendant. The resulting joint investigation by the Knoxville Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation involved the execution of numerous search warrants and the seizure of hundreds of counterfeit CDs, DVDs, DVD case inserts, and other items.
Sentencing has been scheduled for October 4, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. The United States is represented in this matter to Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank M. Dale, Jr.