Four people were sentenced Thursday for their roles in a counterfeit DVD and CD operation based in Atlanta warehouses. If the items had been authentic, the operation would have been worth more than $2 million.
Mamadou Sadio Barry, 40, was sentenced to 60 months and Moussa Baradji, 29, was sentenced to 50 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said.
Baradji and Barry produced and paid others to produce counterfeit labels and packaging and then assemble the final product, which they then sold at their retail stores. According to the evidence at trial, the defendants’ warehouse operation reproduced thousands of CDs and DVDs per week for distribution.
Sedikey Sankano, 42, was sentenced to 24 months in prison and Won Ahn, 69, was placed on probation for one year, a spokesman for Yates' office said.
Sankano acquired labels, packaging and blank digital media at the warehouse for use in manufacturing copies of copyrighted materials on DVDs and CDs. Ahn assisted in supplying the producers with blank DVDs and CDs that had been illegally smuggled into the United States.
“Our communities have many vendors and marketers of products on the streets, and people who buy the products should be warned that some of those products might not be legitimate," Yates said in a statement. "Even beyond that, it is illegal to counterfeit copyrighted material. Atlanta is also a major creative and entertainment hub, and the people who produce the real products rightfully should be the ones who are compensated, instead of the pirates in the middle."
Barry and Baradji were ordered to pay $70,894 in restitution and Sankano was ordered to pay $3,867 in restitution.
Mamadou Sadio Barry, 40, was sentenced to 60 months in prison; Moussa Baradji, 29, was sentenced to 50 months in prison; Sedikey Sankano, 42, was sentenced to 24 months in prison; and Won Ahn, 69, was placed on probation for one year.
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