Surelock operatives spent some time travelling in the Antalya, Kemer, Analya, Belek and Istanbul areas of Turkey where we identified a number of wholesalers that were mass selling our client’s label together with many other labels.
We covertly gathered evidence by way of video footage and making test purchases. Since the premises were open to the public, precautions had to be taken to protect our own agents. We had utilised the services of a local Turkish investigator in order to travel more freely.
During the course of our investigations, we became friendly with one wholesaler, who invited us to visit his father’s factory in Istanbul. Posing as prospective purchasers, we visited the factory and had meetings with the principals. We were given a guided tour of this factory, which was extremely large and situated on three floors. Each of the floors was mass-producing counterfeits of many different labels, manufacturing one label on a particular day and then switching to another. Unbeknown to our hosts, we had covertly video recorded all the various floors in the factory and recorded their conversations.
A detailed evidential package was put together and given to the US lawyers, who decided not to initiate prosecutions as this was considered unsafe at this time for political reasons but instead to recruit factory staff.