Brief Introduction

Based on careful and thorough investigation, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau cracked down on a case of producing and selling fake Dasheng masks in August and September of 2020. Four criminals, including one named Chen Shugen, were arrested.

Their hideouts for production and sales in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province and Songjiang district, Shanghai, where a total of 10,140 fake Dasheng N95 masks, 18,350 packages, and two steel-seal mould machines were discovered, have been shut down. Fake masks, both sold and distrained ones, were worth about 4 million yuan ($617,497).

According to the investigation, Chen Shugen and his accomplices set up an illegal factory in Songjiang, bought moulding equipment online, and began producing fake N95 masks without the authorization of the Dasheng brand in May 2020. They priced the masks from 7.5 to 20 yuan each.

The people's court of Shanghai Xuhui district sentenced Chen Shugen to five years in prison and fined him 1 million yuan for the crime of counterfeiting a registered trademark. Shanghai Liujin Environmental Technology Co was fined 12 million yuan. Another accomplice, Zhu Jian, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 500,000 yuan. The other two accomplices were handled as a separate case.

Professional Comments

A handful of criminals produced fake and substandard anti-epidemic products and seriously disrupted market order during the epidemic in 2020. The case showed the Shanghai police's determination to crack down on violations of intellectual property rights and the production and sale of fake anti-epidemic products, which can be the difference between life and death.