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Tamer Zakhary, 49, of Toms River, modified license-plate readers and other cameras, then removed the original company’s logo, an FBI complaint says.
He then told the police departments, prosecutor's offices and other buyers throughout the state that they were compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
Zakhary also convinced some of them to dip into federal COVID relief money to fund a combined $15 million worth of purchases, the FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says.
Zakhary was the CEO of Packetalk, which the government said sold the rebranded cameras from a location across Stuyvesant Avenue from the train station in Lyndhurst.
Some law enforcement officials said news of the charges didn't surprise them.
"He was a good salesman," a retired North Jersey police chief told Daily Voice. "He locked a lot of people in when he said he had some big government contract and worked with New York City post-9/11. His follow-up after installing them left a lot to be desired, though.
"When the cameras work, they work well," the veteran lawman said. "But I had several bouts with him for not following through on promises he made when he sold them to us, mainly with facial recognition (cameras)."
Although the FBI complaint doesn’t identify the Chinese company by name, multiple reports say it’s Dahua Technology, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of surveillance cameras.
The United States banned using federal funds to buy products by Dahua Technology in 2019. The blacklisting followed what U.S. authorities said were human rights violations and abuses by the company as part of a "campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance" by China against Muslim groups in its country.
Packetalk sold rebranded Dahua automated license plate readers and other camera equipment to prosecutors’ offices, sheriffs’ offices, police departments, and townships throughout New Jersey, the complaint says.
Customers also included several cities and towns: Packetalk's advertising boasted of deals with, among others, Newark, Passaic, Trenton, West Orange, East Orange, Montville and Long Beach Township.
Trenton officials reported last fall that the cameras helped cut crime in the state capital.
For his part, Zakhary called the cameras he sold “shells” and “everything short of anything intellectual,” according to the FBI complaint. They didn't represent “the guts of the camera,” it says he told agents.
Zakhary also said he believed that the cameras were compliant because they ran Packetalk’s software and not Dahlia’s, the complaint says.
A federal judge in Newark on Thursday, Jan. 4, released Zakhary on a $100,000 unsecured bond pending trial for wire fraud and making false statements.
Sellinger credited FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agents in Newark with the investigation leading to the charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Amore, who’s the chief of Sellinger’s General Crimes Unit in Newark, is handling the case.
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