A Chinese national was sentenced Friday in Hartford to 15 months of imprisonment for conspiring to sell counterfeits of sophisticated integrated circuits to a purchaser in the United States.
Daofu Zhang, 40, of Shenzen, China, had pleaded guilty to the charges in New Haven federal court in April.
According to court documents and his own statements, Zhang and his two co-conspirators each operated businesses in China that bought and sold electronic components, including integrated circuits. They conspired with a U.S. individual to acquire military grade integrated circuits that could not be shipped outside of the U.S.
Zhang created counterfeit circuits to replace the real integrated circuits that would need to be stolen. The scheme was to replace them with their counterfeits. Zhang and his co-conspirators were arrested when they traveled to Connecticut to complete the transaction.
Zhang pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods. He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford on July 8, 2016, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of up to $2 million.
