Lake Forest Firm, Owner Indicted in Alleged Sale of Fake IBM Chips

SANTA ANA — A Lake Forest company and its owner were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on charges of wire fraud and trafficking of computer memory chips that were fraudulently sold as IBM products.

Roger D. Aielli, 37, and his Dynamite Data Systems Inc. were accused of selling $500,000 worth of fraudulent chips throughout the United States from 1990 to 1993.

Aielli “knowingly misled numerous victim purchasers into believing that they were purchasing genuine, authorized, new IBM [memory products],” according to the indictment.

According to a news release issued by the Department of Justice, the case will be prosecuted in federal court in Santa Ana, and was the result of a lengthy investigation by the FBI.

Officials at Dynamite Data Systems could not be reached for comment.

Computer chips are valuable commodities and have been at the center of a number of high-profile federal cases in recent years. But many recent cases have involved the theft of chips, not copyright infringement, which is the basis of the case against Dynamite Data Systems.

Aielli and his company are accused of manufacturing boxes, plastic packaging inserts, labels and pamphlets bearing IBM trademarks. The company then purchased memory modules from other suppliers, including some used modules, according to the indictment.

The modules allegedly were placed in the counterfeit boxes and sold as if they were IBM products, according to Peter Toren, a Department of Justice attorney who is handling the case.

Toren said that Dynamite Data also allegedly sold counterfeit boxes, inserts and other materials to others who repackaged memory modules and sold them as IBM products. The wire fraud charges stem from interstate sales calls allegedly made by Dynamite Data Systems.