Photo Courtesy of Dillards
The counterfeit goods included items such as Michael Kors wallets.
By Forum Staff
Six indictments and a criminal complaint were unsealed in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday charging 22 people—13 from Queens—with illegally bringing into the U.S. millions of dollars of Chinese-manufactured goods by smuggling them through ports of entry on the East and West Coasts, according to prosecutors.
The charges include conspiracy to traffic, and trafficking, in counterfeit goods; conspiracy to smuggle, and smuggling, counterfeit goods into the U.S.; money laundering conspiracy; immigration fraud and unlawful procurement of naturalization. In addition, the government restrained nine real properties in Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn, belonging to the defendants, authorities noted.
According to charging papers, the defendants played various roles, including importers, wholesale distributors, and domestic shippers, in the trafficking of counterfeit goods manufactured in China, brought by ocean-going ships to the U.S. in 40-foot shipping containers, smuggled through ports of entry disguised as legitimate imports and distributed throughout the country. The counterfeit goods included items such as Louis Vuitton and Tory Burch handbags, Michael Kors wallets, Hermes belts and Chanel perfume.
For example, importers, including borough resident Yu Ming Wong, allegedly arranged to smuggle counterfeit goods into the U.S. through the Port of New York/New Jersey and elsewhere. They fraudulently used the names, addresses and other identifying information of legitimate import companies and falsified the descriptions of the containers’ contents on U.S. customs paperwork associated with the containers of counterfeit goods. They used “burner” phone numbers and “burner” email accounts—obtained by using false or incomplete information—in order to conceal their true identities. The counterfeit goods, according to federal prosecutors, were transported by trucks to self-storage facilities in Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island, where the goods were unloaded and stored. Wong and others allegedly smuggled or attempted to smuggle 23 40-foot shipping containers into the country loaded with counterfeit items. The estimated Manufacturers’ Suggested Retail Price of these items, had they been genuine, would have been more than $450 million, government officials noted.
