What was this all about? Mot try to pull something??
John
Motorola Not to Seek Redress for Phones
Friday August 25, 9:32 am ET
Motorola Says It Will Not Seek Compensation for Handsets Destroyed by Russian Police
MOSCOW (AP) -- The head of Motorola Inc.'s Russian division said Friday the world's No. 2 handset-maker will not seek compensation for the destruction of its mobile phones worth $2 million after a murky 5-month contraband case was finally closed this month.
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Russian police confiscated tens of thousands of the mobile phones in March on the grounds that they had been brought into the country illegally. The case was closed this month, and the phones have been returned, the company said -- with the exception of about 50,000 handsets that police destroyed in April on the grounds that they presented a health hazard.
Motorola country director Sergei Kozlov said the company did not intend to seek damages for the destroyed phones and welcomed the decision by Russian prosecutors to drop the case.
"Our main objective is to put this all behind us and to move forward and cooperate with Russian authorities to avoid such incidents in the future," he wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
In a statement released Thursday, Motorola's Executive Vice President Ron Garriques said the company would "continue to increase investments and develop partnerships in Russia."
Representatives from the prosecutors office and police were not immediately available for comment.
In March, a total of 167,000 Motorola mobile phones -- worth about $17 million -- were impounded by police at a Moscow airport as evidence in a contraband case.
The case soon took a more dramatic turn: In mid-April police charged that the phones posed a danger to consumers' health and promptly destroyed 49,991 handsets. Motorola denied the charge and says it has received no formal claim or evidence that the phones were a danger.
Against this backdrop, Motorola also faced charges of peddling counterfeit goods. A company called RussGPS has asked prosecutors to open a criminal case against the company, claiming Motorola violated a patent RussGPS bought in 2003. No case has been opened, Motorola spokesman Tom Blackwell said Friday, and the company has begun suing RussGPS for defamation.
The next hearing is scheduled for Sept.13. |
