Six Indicted in $16 Million Counterfeit Shoe Scheme
 Alexis Huicochea - Arizona Daily Star
| | How long it would take to make copies of Nike shoes? The answer: 1,000 shoes within 10 days, at $4 a pair. (CBS) |
More than $16 million worth of counterfeit Nike athletic shoes were seized in Arizona in what authorities are calling one of the largest counterfeit merchandising smuggling schemes in U.S. history, officials said Tuesday.
According to a news release, six people, including one from Sonora, Mexico, two from El Paso, Texas, two from Hong Kong and one from the People’s Republic of China, arranged to have approximately 135,000 pairs of knock-off Nike shoes transported into Arizona to be resold illegally.
Those shoes, along with approximately 558,000 others, were shipped to California from China and were to be transported through the United States to Mexico, said Special Agent in Charge Roberto G. Medina of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
However, the suspects true intent was to keep the counterfeit merchandise in the country by bribing an undercover federal agent posing as a Customs and Border Protection officer to create documentation stating that the shoes were exported to Mexico.
“This case represents one of the most significant investigations into counterfeit goods in recent U.S. history,” Medina said. “Taking down an organization that sought to introduce millions of dollars worth of counterfeit goods into our economy is a victory for both consumers and legitimate businesses.”
Six suspects have been named in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Tucson Aug. 16, they are: Mark Elias, 36, of El Paso; Juan Carlos Martinez-Esquer, 46, of Sonora, Mexico; Manuel Flores Jr., 53, of El Paso; Wei Tung Lam, also known as Tony Lan Wen Jung, a resident of Gambia and a native of the People’s Republic of China; Sau Kuen Chan, also known as Edith Chan, of Hong Kong; and Peng Liu, also known as charleyworld, a resident of Hong Kong.
All six are facing charges of bribery of a public official and trafficking in counterfeit goods and services, according to the indictment.
Martinez-Esquer, Wei Tung Lam and Sau Kuen Chan were arraigned Aug. 24 and will go to trial Oct. 17. They are being held in federal custody.
Elias and Flores will be arraigned Thursday and have been released on $50,000 and $20,000 cash bond respectively.
Liu has not been caught.
Contact reporter Alexis Huicochea at 520-629-9412 or ahuicochea@azstarnet.com |
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News from Around the Americas | September 2006 
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