A counterfeit ring worth $130 Million that Included Fake UGG Boots, Nike Air Jordan Sneakers, Timberland Boots and Beats Headphones has been cancelled after arrests were made yesterday in the state of New York.
The Indictment alleges that Hai Long Zhou 53 of Queens, Saiyin Hou 25 of Brooklyn, Yan Xue Huang 50 of Queens and Jian Fen Yan 57 of Queens coordinated the counterfeit ring where goods were imported as generic goods into the United States from China and then applied brand labels in workshops controlled locally by the defendants. They then sold those counterfeit-branded goods to retail and wholesale purchasers. The charges against the defendants include conspiracy to traffic and trafficking in counterfeit goods and money laundering.
The offence occurred between October 2019 and July 2021 and the estimated retail value of the counterfeit-branded goods, had they been genuine, was in excess of $130 million.
The case was handled by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Homeland Security Investigations, New York (HSI), and the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Fitzhugh.Peter C. Fitzhugh, stated:
“HSI New York’s Border Enforcement Security Taskforce stands at the forefront of the fight against criminal organizations who identify weaknesses in our supply chain and infiltrate them for their personal financial gain…In addition to their detrimental effect to our economy, counterfeiting networks such as this one poses a threat to our national security and public safety by introducing products that often contain harmful materials and substances. HSI and CBP are uniquely positioned to combat these organizations and, along with our partners at the New York City Police Department, will work tirelessly to protect New York City and the Homeland.”
A combination of online tracking and on-the-ground investigations led to this significant development in the fight against counterfeits coming out of China and the perpetrators that disregard globally accept IPR.
About brandsec
bandsec is a corporate domain name management and brand protection company that looks after many of Australia, New Zealand and Asia’s top publicly listed brands. We provide monitoring and enforcement services, DNS, SSL Management, domain name brokerage and dispute management and brand security consultation services.
