Two sentenced in counterfeit DVD/CD case

By AISLING SWIFT (Contact)
8:45 p.m., Monday, March 24, 2008

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/mar ... vdcd-case/

A Naples man and a Coral Springs woman who were caught selling counterfeit DVDs and compact discs at a Collier County flea market in fall pleaded no contest Monday to counterfeiting charges.

Shi Ping Ye, 51, of Coral Springs, who spoke through a Mandarin translator, pleaded no contest to two counts of passing more than 100 counterfeit CDs and DVDs and was found guilty by Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt.

Ye and Nathanael Gomez, 31, of 157 Nimitz St., were arrested Sept. 29 after an investigator with The Motion Picture Association and Recording Industry of America found counterfeit DVDS and CDs for sale at a local flea market on the Collier County fairgrounds.

Ye was found with 301 counterfeit DVDs and CDs and attempted to hide some, while Gomez had 396 CDs and 28 DVDs that would have cost the Recording Industry of America about $4,560 in losses.

They faced up to five years in a state prison if convicted of the third-degree felonies, but got plea bargains.

Ye, who had no prior record, originally had faced a charge of possessing more than 1,000 counterfeits, but the charge was reduced as part of a plea agreement negotiated by Assistant State Attorney James Chandler and defense attorney Tony Pornprinya.

Under the agreement, Ye was sentenced to three years of probation, ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution to the Recording Industry of America in Miami and must provide that group with a statement.

“The Recording Industry believes Ms. Ye may be able to tell them where she got those items,â€