Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/426299
10 Business Today maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2014 292 internet domain names seized for selling counterfeit products Europol and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Se- curity Investigations, together with 25 law enforcement agencies from 19 countries, have seized 292 do- main names that were illegally sell- ing counterfeit merchandise online to unsuspecting consumers. The 292 domain names seized are part of project 'In Our Sites Transatlantic V'. The operation was coordinated by Europol for its partners - Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and the United Kingdom - and the HSI-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center in Washington, DC, for the United States. Since August, Europol and the IPR Center have received leads from trademark holders regarding the infringing websites, which were then circulated to law enforcement authorities in the participating countries. The domain names seized are now in the custody of the governments involved in these operations. Visitors typing those domain names into their web browsers will find either a banner that notifies them of the seizure and educates them about the crime of wilful copyright infringement, or the visitors will not be able to access the website anymore. The most popular counterfeit products concerned include the traditional luxury goods but also sportswear, electronics, pharmaceuticals and pirated goods like movies and music. While seizing the websites is only one way of disrupting and hindering the criminals behind the sale of counterfeits on the Internet, law enforcement authorities also now focus increasingly on the 'follow- the-money' approach, in line with the EU Action Plan on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. Project IOS is a sustained law enforcement initiative that began to protect consumers by targeting the sale of counterfeit merchandise on the Internet. The 292 domain names seized under Operation IOS V brings the total number of IOS domain names seized to 1829 since the IOS project began in November 2012. Counterfeit products being sold online not only rip off the consumer and provide shoddy products, but also put their personal financial information at risk. Consumers are encouraged to report counterfeit products and websites selling them, but also encouraged to raise awareness with others because counterfeiting crimes result in many victims. In addition, the crimes can cause revenue and tax losses, unemployment, environmental, health and safety issues for humans and animals, human exploitation and child labour. Tumas Group chairman George Fenech passes away Matthew Vella One of Malta's leading entrepreneurs, George Fenech, has passed away. Fenech, 63, the chairman and managing director of the Tumas Group, had been battling cancer for some time. His name will be associated with some of Malta's major projects constructed under the Tumas brand, most visibly the Hilton-Portomaso complex. He was also part of the consortium that secured the construction of Malta's forthcoming LNG plant with Socar, Siemens and Gasol. Under Fenech's guidance the Tumas Group expanded into new areas of activity and undertook the construction and management of the Portomaso project and subsequently other major real estate projects. Fenech – the eldest of seven children – had no academic qualifications beyond GCEs, but was responsible for his father's businesses as early as the late 1960s. His father, Tumas Fenech, retired from the police force in 1968 but had already been buying and selling property for two years, making a name for himself in Qormi, his hometown. "I have never met anybody as capable as he was, anywhere. He was a genius when it came to property. He had an incredible vision and he truly felt the pulse of the property market," Fenech said of his father. George Fenech left the Lyceum in 1968, and started to run the Armada nightclub and soon after a showroom in Qormi for domestic appliances and furniture. In 1976, he bought a small hotel, the Cartwheel, and soon after the Topaz Aparthotel. By 1983, he started pioneering timeshare, and soon after purchased the Halland Hotel in 1984 as a management agreement with Air Malta was about to expire. In 1985 the Dolmen Hotel was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the Tumas Group took it on. His greatest acquisition was the old Hilton Hotel in 1986. The Group then purchased and rebuilt the Mgarr Hotel overlooking Gozo's main port in 1990. Apart from retail, real estate, tourism and construction, the Group branched into car importation, gaming and executive jet transport. The Tumas Group alone commands an asset base worth in excess of €150 million, apart from its subsidiaries. Reflecting on the completion of the Portomaso marina, he later said: "I have probably done more than I should now… I am looking at opportunities in property overseas. But I do have two interesting residential projects in the pipeline, one in the north of the island and another in the south. They will be built in today's style, with good landscaping, open areas and a few traditional elements. As I told you, I do not like building boxes." By his own admission he hated the limelight, so when a trip to watch Arsenal with his fellow magnate Joseph Gasan and finance minister Tonio Fenech hit the news headlines, the commercial interests of the Gasan- Fenech tandem for a new Portomaso of the south came out into the open. Despite the criticism by environmentalists of his Portomaso project, Fenech claimed he was "the biggest admirer of those I resented when the project was being developed" – in a back-handed compliment. "I thought certain people were there just to make my life difficult, and it was a very difficult time. But I think it was that resistance which set the standard for large-scale projects in Malta. MEPA, for example, has really improved since then. It was a learning curve for us all." He had a passion for horses, having been chairman of the Malta Racing Club. Fenech was married to Patricia, and had two sons, Yorgen and Franco. George Fenech, leading entrepreneur