"You do not need an admission from people who bought these for resale, . . . find the people who bought them thinking they were real and then trace backwards."

What you trace to is denial. If that isn't yet apparent Pete, please give it a little more thought. You do need an admission from people who bought these for resale to confirm Mr. W's claim that he made them then sold them after making full disclosure.

IOW, IF I had bought one of these items, found out that it was not represented to be what it was, returned it for a refund, then I would have had first hand experience in the transaction and would have been ready to sign a sworn statement detailing the transaction. I wasn't the purchaser of one of these items, didn't return it for a refund. BUT, a person whose word I trust implicitly was. That was my contribution to the investigation.

I don't know where Jim ran into a deadend because someone else wasn't willing to cooperate by confirming my information, but it happened. ...apparently more than once with other "trace it back" information. My friend didn't realize that the chip was a fake until someone else pointed it out to him.

Bob