A Cincinnati man pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges that he made counterfeits of the Apple Computer Inc Macintosh 128K BIOS ROMs, and sold them for a total of $500,000: Dennis Hayes pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and criminal infringement of a copyright and faces up to 26 years in prison and a $775,000 fine; the Internal Revenue Service says Hayes sold about 5,000 sets of the counterfeit ROMs chips between 1988 and 1990 – to counterfeit the chips, Hayes bought blank chips and removed the manufacturer’s name before having the chips silk-screened with the Apple Computer Inc logo, copyright information and parts numbers to make them appear genuine and sold the dummies for $95 to $130 a set; Federal agents say they seized computers, some $180,000 cash, $2,000 in traveller’s cheques and weapons including four Uzi semiautomatic guns, and a Piper Comanche.
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