Fayetteville business owner arrested after search warrant reveals counterfeit software

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Fayetteville business owner arrested after search warrant reveals counterfeit software

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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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