Over 100 cartons of counterfeit pens impounded

Police has impounded 105 cartons of counterfeit BIC pens valued at over Rwf 6 million and arrested five people suspected to be behind the act. The boxes were seized from five shops along the city’s bustling commercial street, Quartier Matheus and owners arrested in connection with the racket.The suspects, who are currently held at Remera Police Station, were yesterday paraded before journalists.The suspects are Idrissa Bayavuge, the owner of Life Business International Limited, Emmanuel Uwiringiyimana of New Life Sport, Silas Niyonsenga of SERONA, Valens Nsabimana who owns Good Will shop and Jerome Niyitegeka.According to, John Paul Kabano, the Director Sales and Marketing of T&T Trading, the official distributor for HACO TIGERBRANDS – the Kenya-based manufacturers of BIC pens, who raised the alarm, they detected the fake products on the market last November. “We reported the case to police who helped us apprehend these people. We don’t have evidence of where these fake products are manufactured, but information we have is that they are manufactured in China,” Kabano told journalists.According to Kabano, their original product has a navy-blue cover compared to a blue one that tells them apart.Besides the colour, he added that the two products differ in the weight of cartons and height.Their original product, he explained, is sold at Rwf 58,000 per carton which has 1,000 pens while the fake product is sold at Rwf 40,000 per carton.However, one of the suspects, Bayavuge denied having prior knowledge of the fake pens.“We bought these pens from Uganda and we have receipts of where we bought them. We paid taxes at the border and they cleared us to sell our products. I wonder how they now follow us to claim that we are selling counterfeit pens,” Bayavuge said in defence.Kabano, however, denied Bayavuge’s claims noting that the agreement they have with HACO TIGERBRANDS (E.A) is that no other distributor is allowed to import the product.“This means that they went and manufactured the same product like ours, which are substandard, under our name, which damages our name. Each country has a distributor. Like T&T Trading, we are not allowed to export these pens to any other country. They used our name and code,” narrated Kabano.Police Spokesperson, Supt Theos Badege warned those dealing in counterfeit products. He said that they have partnered with other concerned institutions to effectively fight against the crime.Forging industrial products is a crime punishable with a sentence of between five and ten years.

National

Over 100 cartons of counterfeit pens impounded