MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Namco and the feds take down 60in1 cocktail & upright cab maker

> Kinda surprised this topic isnt already on the board.
> Actually happened a week before CAX at the CoinOpStore in Santa Clara, CA.
> 60n1 and 256n1 PCBs plus cash and cars seized by the feds.
> Trial date Aug 21, Santa Clara County.
>
> http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/10/mo...software-owner/
>
> https://youtu.be/4Vfb-YMfKf8

Something in the article that I found amusing:

"“These are thefts of ideas and innovation in Silicon Valley, the home of ideas and innovation,” Santa Clara County prosecutor Erica Engin said.

"The unauthorized video games included “Galaga,” “Tank Battalion,” and at least five iterations of “Pac-Man,” all of which are trademarked by Bandai Namco Entertainment, whose U.S. headquarters is also in Santa Clara."

And all three of the games listed were developed in Japan. What that has to do with "ideas and innovation" in Silicon Valley escapes me, but, hey, she may as well run with it.

In all honesty, though, I really couldn't care less. x-in-1 boards are something I've always had a special type of loathing for, so if this clears up eBay and Craigslist search results when I'm looking for classic arcade game stuff, I'm fine with that.

One footnote to this: the story also mentions the following:

"Prosecutors have already seized and frozen their assets, which are subject to forfeiture. They include more than $1.2 million in cash, a 2012 Mercedes Benz, a 2015 BMW, and five residential properties in Sunnyvale, Milpitas, and Arcadia, Engin said."

It's difficult to believe that anyone is making suitably significant money from the sale of x-in-boards to be able to afford all of those things (or stockpile that much cash), especially at California property prices. Given the names and locations of most of those involved, I'm going to guess that most are PRC nationals who had been purchasing property & cars in CA in order to move money offshore of the PRC and mostly out of its reach; this is extremely common in Arcadia (a suburb of Los Angeles 400 miles to the South of Santa Clara).

The article doesn't state if enforcement was at a local, State, or Federal level, but I'm going to guess local given that the County prosecutor is involved. In all likelihood there will be some asset forfeiture, they'll each get a year or so in jail, and someone else will move in to fill the void while the defendants are serving out their sentences.