US authorities seize fake luxury goods shipped from China
Federal homeland security agents seized a large haul of counterfeit luxury handbags, wallets and belts smuggled through ports in the New York-city area and Los Angeles, officials said Thursday.
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations announced charges in New York City against 33 people in a scheme involving fake goods it estimated had a potential value of nearly a half billion dollars if passed off as genuine. It said the seized items included fake Louis Vuitton and Tory Burch handbags, Michael Kors wallets, Hermes belts and Chanel perfume.
“The defendants allegedly smuggled millions of dollars of counterfeit luxury goods into our country, depriving companies of their valuable and hard-earned intellectual property,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in a statement.