Count-inv
North America,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, May 26, 2011
It is a sad story though, a couple Mark Snider and Kristal W.Snider from plymouth, who were basically selling flowers from their Diane's Duxbury home came into this business starting in a dingy room at 19R Main street Plymouth, MI. Later moved to Florida in 2006.This couple is so greedy they left no table unturned whatever gave them money without doing much work. Kristal Snider started with Nurse work, later shifted to over dozen businesses along with her husband, right from printing fliers, business cards, selling cargo insurances, web designing, and so on. Basically they had no technical background to be in electronic component industry.
Now coming to her venture ERAI, which is basically a membership organisation of brokers across the world, but its main objective was to help network American brokers and Chinese brokers where chunk of business comes from. Brokers not having access to many parts in open market often resorted to Chinese made fake/counterfeit and pirated parts including military and aviation grade parts. This networking helped her bring millions of dollars in membership. She and her husband also carried out multi million escrow processes between Chinese flea market suppliers and American buyers, knowing that 99% parts sold in open chinese market are pirated and hence counterfeits. She kept on networking counterfeits to boost her revenue, while to attract more and more international members other than china, she harped on her love for anti-counterfeiting theory. She developed few ways to improvise counterfeits which is been taught to Chinese suppliers so that the components do not get intercepted by layman or even border officials. Thanks to Kristal snider who has made America a biggest buyer of pirated electronic components. America consumes over 75% of pirated components made in China, which no other industrially developed countries like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan or India would buy.
It is often the greed of fat margin of Americans brokers and their lavish lifestyle , encouraged Chinese to produce more and more counterfeits. Networking power, improvising visual aspects and escrow services by ERAI helped this trade rocket to its peak level. No wonder there are big brokers who openly bought and./or sold tonnes of counterfeits:
Few big names are:
MVP MICRO,
TYTRONIX, ( EPIC INTERNAIONAL)
USBID,
V&C TECHNOLOGIES INC,
AMERICAN ELECTRONIC RESOURCE,
GLOBAL SOLUTIONS ELECTRONICS ( NOLEADTIME.COM),
KIMTRONICS,
CARLIN SYSTEMS
VISIONTECH ( SHANNON WREN),
OXYGEN ELECTRONICS,
BIGAPPLE, FORESIGHT,
FOUNDATION TECHNOLOGIES
HYPER IC FLORIDA ( CHIP ROUX - CLOSE ASSOCIATE OF SNIDER FAMILY)
and many more.
Apart from these ,there were nearly 500 known flea market vendors in China, joined ERAI network changed their names after selling counterfeits, came back with different names. ERAI happily entertained them , as long as they got their kickbacks in the form of membership and escrow fees. She conducted many booze parties for brokers to market her membership network.
Among these many of these companies even used ISO and ANAB certifications besides using networking power of IDEA and ERAI.
No wonder today most American military organizations like NASA, PENTAGON, BAE and other companies including aviation companies are struggling with insurge of pirated components in their equipments.
Still if someone wants to trust Kristal Snider, Mark A. snider and her close associate Terry M. lively then it is upto you. We can judge who are those people working behind the screen to link billion dollar piracy network which operates between China and USA. Many American companies in-turn sell those military counterfeits to other countries with their American lables and American advantages along with ERAI, IDEA tags. Companies like USBID, V&C Technologies, AERI are still churning millions with the sound support of Kristal snider.
Decide for yourself who is working behind the show besides greedy brokers. This has become epidemic in last 5 to 6 years. Something which could have been at very minor had ERAI not ventured into this illegal trade to pump out money. Yes there are major B2B sites like EBAY, THE BROKERFORUM, NETCOMPONENTS, HKINVENTORY.COM who provided platform to market pirated products.
(FYI 90% of ERAI members , associates, affiliates are involved in distribution of pirated/counterfeit commercial and military components)
Kristal Snider, ERAI
Naples,#3REBUTTAL Individual responds
Thu, January 20, 2011
To Whom It May Concern:
For the last several years, ERAI, its principals and employees have been the target of an intense smear campaign orchestrated by an individual who seeks to bring harm to ERAI, its principals, employees and any person or business who interferes with the perpetrators ominous cyber attacks. For a long period of time, ERAI was more or less exclusively the primary target of these libelous broadcasts. Now, numerous businesses are among the victims of these often-times unprovoked outbursts.
ERAI is frequently asked why these posts have been and continue to be made. Simply put, due to the nature of our organization which involves monitoring, investigating, reporting, and mediating issues affecting the global supply chain of electronics, it is not uncommon to have companies that have been reported by ERAI attempt to discredit our organization. The hundreds of posts that are currently visible on the Internet have been made by one individual using dozens of Internet screen names. Because the Internet provides bloggers with a cloak of anonymity, a person can create the illusion of numerous disgruntled or concerned individuals when that is simply not the case. The author of these posts is an individual that was reported by ERAI for selling faulty material. He made numerous threats against ERAI and its employees both during the investigation and after he was reported.
It helps to have a better understanding of our organization in order to understand the motivation of these types of criminals. Founded in 1995 and incorporated in 1996, ERAI is a privately held trade organization that has been the industry's primary reporting and investigation service supplying information, mediation and risk mitigation solutions to electronics professionals worldwide. Membership to ERAI is open to franchised and independent distributors, OEMs, OCMs, CMs, test houses, government agencies and associations serving the industry. ERAI is actively involved in a number of committees and task forces that are addressing the issue of counterfeit parts in the global supply chain of electronics.
There are a number of reasons why counterfeiting has become so rampant in the last few years, such as the breakdown of trade barriers among countries with less restrictive IP laws, the green initiatives that have led to more e-waste and easy access through the Internet to market and sell material easily. Counterfeiting has become a global issue affecting multiple industries from electronics to golf clubs, pharmaceuticals and tobacco, among others. It is particularly troubling to ERAI since counterfeit electronics can not only affect individuals health and safety, but could even be a threat to national security. Every industry has been affected and ERAI is working diligently to address the problem in the electronics sector and to offer solutions to this very serious issue. Unfortunately, we have to accept the fact that the Internet creates an audience for individuals to post information that is entirely false, inaccurate and without merit.
ERAI is uniting the industry in addressing issues that are plaguing the market and we hope you can be part of the solution with us.
ERAI deeply regrets the frustration and/or confusion these cyber attacks have caused. Despite the difficult obstacles ERAI must sometimes face, it will continue to provide the valuable information and services its Members have come to rely upon to make the most informed business decisions possible. ERAI remains committed to serving its customers with the integrity and professionalism the semiconductor industry has come to expect.
Sincerely,
Kristal Snider
[email protected]
Vice President
ERAI Inc.