A 43-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco for importing and selling counterfeit DVDs.
San Francisco resident Christopher Breejen will serve 15 months in prison and must pay $117,439.50 in restitution for criminal copyright infringement, according to prosecutors.
U.S. District Court Judge Beth Freeman handed down the sentence to Breejen, in addition to a three-year period of supervised release.
Breejen pleaded guilty on Nov. 18, admitting to importing counterfeit DVDs and then selling them on the website eBay, prosecutors said.
Between 2011 and August 2014, Breejen sold approximately 20,000 counterfeit DVDs nationwide, according to prosecutors.
The investigation began with a tip from the Motion Picture Association of America.
Agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 16 separate shipments of the counterfeit products, which had been sent to Breejen from Asia, prosecutors said.
CBP agents notified Breejen about the counterfeit goods in the seized shipments.
Despite the seizures and notifications, Breejen continued to import and sell the illegal DVDs, until agents from Homeland Security Investigations executed a search warrant at his San Francisco residence. There, the agents seized additional counterfeit DVDs, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors charged Breejen with the crime on Sept. 26.
The defendant is set to begin serving his sentence on Aug. 8, according to prosecutors.
Daniel Montes, Bay City News
