Inside ICE: Volume 2, Issue 23

Four Charged In Scheme To Sell 30,000 Counterfeit Luxury Items

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Four Massachusetts residents were charged November 3 in federal court with money laundering and trafficking and conspiring to traffic in more than $1.4 million of counterfeit luxury handbags and wallets, as well as the materials needed to make these counterfeits.

Those arrested were Katherine Luong, age 26, of Chelsea; Camphung Luong, age 24, of Chelsea; Kim Luong, age 22, of Quincy and Minh Vu, age 25, of Chelsea. They have been charged in a 10-count indictment with conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, conspiracy to commit money laundering and a variety of counts alleging specific instances of trafficking in counterfeit goods and money laundering.

ICE worked with the Internal Revenue Service on the case, which is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan of the District of Massachusetts.

The indictment charges that the Luong sisters and Vu, Katherine Luong’s boyfriend, used thirteen self-storage units at a facility in Revere, Mass., as their counterfeiting operation’s home base. When raided by law enforcement officers earlier this year, the units held approximately 12,231 counterfeit handbags; 7,651 counterfeit wallets; more than 17,000 generic handbags and wallets and enough counterfeit labels and medallions to turn more than 50,000 generic handbags and wallets into counterfeits. These items copied Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade, Prada, Gucci, Fendi, Burberry and Coach trademarks, but were of lower price and quality. The indictment charges that the counterfeit and generic handbags and wallets were worth approximately $1.4 million at average counterfeit prices (typically $35 for wallets and $40 for handbags), and well over $6 million had they been authentic.

“The public needs to know that when they buy a counterfeit purse at a house party or on the street, their dollars are ultimately helping to finance large-scale counterfeiting organizations,” said Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew J. Etre of ICE in New England. “And every time they buy a knock-off purse, they are contributing to legitimate companies losing billions of dollars in revenue to counterfeiting every year.”

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