Hello everyone,
Just wanted to drop a quick line on here to provide some clarity to the events in Turkey. First of all we would like to apologize to any Turkish vapers that may have been offended by this situation. We are a big supporter of the Turkish vapor community and any community struggling to regain their legal rights to choose to vape.
It was recently brought to our attention that an E-Liquid distributor in Turkey was selling counterfeit Cosmic Fog products. After receiving hundreds of images from Turkish vapors we conducted an investigation. The result of our investigation found that every counterfeit product sent to us by consumers led back to one man, Ismail Yasubuga. After further investigation we determined that there was a strong likelihood that this man was ordering small amounts of Cosmic Fog and other high profile brands of eliquid and shipping them to Bulgaria so that he may be named an “authorized distributor”. He would then mix in large amounts of counterfeit product and sell it on the Turkish market.
We believe strongly that our investigation is accurate and have consulted with hundreds of Turkish vapors to confirm these results. After confronting this man, Ismail Yasubuga, we stripped him of his distribution rights. At some point he called our office and I had a very heated personal conversation with him. As I believe most anyone who cared deeply about their company would when speaking to a suspected high level counterfeiter. I got personal and said some things directed at this ONE man and certainly not the at the vapers of Turkey. I told him he was akin to a pirate for illegally counterfeiting and smuggling our products. In all honestly, I stand by those statements as they are directed at this one man believed to be shamelessly profiteering off of the vapers of Turkey and taking advantage of the fact that they do not have a legal pipeline to verify they are receiving legitimate product from the source.
What I will NOT stand for, is the implication that these comments are in anyway directed at the amazing vapor community within Turkey. They are directed at one very bad man taking advantage of that community. The company I work for is a tireless advocate for nations all over the world fighting for their rights to vape. We will support the Turkish community in any way we can to help them to regain those rights as we do in every region battling for their right to vape.
Bert Ruiz
Vice President of Business Development
Cosmic Fog Vapors