A Peachtree
City man has been arrested after a search warrant turned up counterfeit
computer software at his business in Fayetteville Tuesday, police said.
Fred Paul Williams,
46, was charged with one felony count of counterfeit trademark violation
and three counts of misdemeanor counterfeit trademark violations, police
said.
Williams owns
ZeBest Deals on Habersham Drive, which had over $600,000 in sales so far
this year, said Detective Marvin Vinson of the Fayetteville Police Department.
All the sales were made through an Internet web site, police said.
"The merchandise
is very high-end, very high-quality," Vinson said, adding that he
believes the inventory may have been produced overseas.
Police hope
to learn where Williams got the counterfeit goods, said Detective Steve
Crawshaw. They will also determine whether or not any of the goods were
produced by Williams, Crawshaw said.
"There
will possibly be further arrests," Crawshaw said.
Police seized
counterfeit Microsoft items with a retail value of $80,000, police said.
The business
computers were also confiscated and they may yield further evidence in
the case, Crawshaw said. Some of the software sold by ZeBest Deals was
legitimate, Crawshaw said.
"The majority
of it was counterfeit software," Crawshaw said.
ZeBest Deals
was selling counterfeit copies of Windows 2000, counterfeit software user
licenses and counterfeit certificates of authenticity, police said. Crawshaw
said Microsoft officials had notified Williams in February that he was
selling counterfeit goods.
The business
opened in June of last year although Williams told police he didn't sell
any products until January, Crawshaw said.
The investigation
began when corporate security investigators from Microsoft contacted the
Fayetteville Police Department with information that turned up in an ongoing
Microsoft investigation, police said.
The information
provided by Microsoft helped lead to this week's search warrant for the
business, police added.
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