The Navy seems to be the leader in working with other government agencies to take down distributors who are selling sub-standard and counterfeit electronic components. This is the third big case to close in the last few years surrounding the sale of electronic components installed in critical hardware for the Navy. It amazes us at AERI, that there is little or nothing done to the hundreds of other distributors actively buying fake components and selling them into the manufacturing industry. Almost every manufacturer we work with has had a counterfeit instance at one time or another, but there are only three big convictions of brokers who have broken the law. How can we allow this to happen? It seems as though we just don’t have willing law enforcement to investigate and prosecute these active criminals. Future budget cuts won’t help either, but in the end we will lose more time and money from the fakes than we would have spent stopping the crooks and setting more examples of what happens when you break the law.
To see more about the most recent takedown by the Navy follow this link.
Robb Hammond, founder and president of AERI (American Electronic Resource, Inc.). Founding member and former committee chair of the SAE AS6081 Standard created for the avoidance of counterfeit electronic components. Robb founded AERI in Costa Mesa, California, in 1994 as an independent distributor of hard-to-find, obsolete and allocated electronic components. AERI is AS9120B, ISO 9001:2015 and AS6081 certified, tests to AS6171 standards, and inspects every part in its in-house QC lab before it ships. Robb writes about electronic component shortages, sourcing strategy and counterfeit avoidance.
