Feds bust bogus-branded karaoke imports in Calif.

LOS ANGELES – An electronics importer is singing the blues after federal officials in Los Angeles seized a nearly $1 million shipment of karaoke machines with bogus brand-name labels.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Jaime Ruiz said Thursday that more than 1,900 machines with counterfeit "SD" labels — for Northern California-based SanDisk Corp. — were seized in mid-May.

Ruiz says privacy laws prohibit him from naming the importer, who wasn't fined and is not the subject of a criminal probe over the machines that arrived at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex from China.

He says his agency hopes losing the valuable shipment will be incentive enough to keep the importer from trying to deal in counterfeit devices again.