California Apparel News

Consumers may be out in full force scouring stores for holiday gifts, but law enforcement officers have been hitting the shopping trail, too.

The haul for authorities has been thousands of dollars in knockoff apparel and accessories as well as a cache of counterfeit DVDs, music CDs and cigarettes.

At a Dec. 6 press conference in downtown Los Angeles, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich unveiled a treasure trove of counterfeit items the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and other agencies confiscated during a six-month investigation. The investigation culminated with a Nov. 17 raid dubbed “Bell Bottoms II” in downtown Los Angeles, primarily in Santee Alley, the famous thoroughfare in the Los Angeles Fashion District known for selling cheap blue jeans, T-shirts, shoes and purses as well as counterfeit goods. During the raid, law enforcement officers seized $23,000 in cash and $446,000 in counterfeit goods and arrested 10 people.

The six-month investigation and one-day raid resulted in eight cases being filed against vendors allegedly selling fake goods. One case involved a Santee Alley store where, police officers said, the owner closed the door on them and kept a customer inside the store, which contained a bookshelf concealing a room filled with fake goods.

At the press conference, held on the Union Rescue Mission roof, overlooking the downtown skyline, officials displayed some of the faux goods on long metal tables. Those items included counterfeit Bebe T-shirts, True Religion blue jeans, Chanel shoes, Louis Vuitton bags, Burberry shirts and caps, and Polo Ralph Lauren tops, as well as fake sunglasses, Marlboro cigarettes, and copies of newly released movies and music CDs.

“Our arrests have been on Santee Alley, back alleys and where people go to look for bargains,” Trutanich said. “We want to remind consumers that these bad guys are out there, that they are going to prey on you. They are going to charge you for a luxury watch, and then you are going to go home and find it is a tin timepiece. At the end of the day we don’t want to create victims; we want to create legitimate commerce.”

The eight people charged or named in lawsuits include:

bull; Fahad Mohammad, charged with one count of selling counterfeit merchandise. On Oct. 25, police said, Mohammad was caught trying to sell a fake Chanel watch with a retail value of $4,800 to an undercover officer after advertising on Craig’s List. He faces up to one year in county jail and a $10,000 fine.

bull; Maria Torres, charged with two counts of selling fake merchandise. Police said Torres, a Santee Alley merchant, sold multiple brands of counterfeit T-shirts with a retail value of more than $12,000. She faces up to four years in county jail and a fine of more than $1 million.

bull; Bilsan Garcia, charged with seven counts of selling counterfeit merchandise and one count of false imprisonment. On Sept. 22, Garcia allegedly locked the doors to her store when she heard officers approaching and refused to let a customer out. Police said they seized counterfeit items with a retail value of nearly $35,000. Garcia faces up to eight years in county jail and more than $2.5 million in fines.

bull; Hassan Bilal, charged with three counts of selling counterfeit merchandise. On July 1, police allegedly caught Bilal offering to sell counterfeit watches to undercover officers in Santee Alley. Authorities said they seized counterfeit items with a $60,000 retail value. Bilal faces up to one year in county jail and a $500,000 fine.

bull; Samuel Dzhulfayan, doing business as Water R Us, allegedly was selling 180 cartons of cigarettes with counterfeit tax stamps. Dzhulfayan was charged with four counts of violating the Revenue and Taxation Code as well as the Business and Professions Code. He is waiting for an arraignment and faces up to four years in jail and a $12,000 fine.

bull; Nuisance-abatement lawsuits were filed against three downtown businesses. Ikhlas and Ahmad Salim, owners of El Socalo at 201 E. Pico Blvd., were sued for allegedly selling or possessing for sale at least 7,643 counterfeit items with a retail value of nearly $640,000. Moda Bivalvi Inc., located at 218 E. Pico Blvd. and owned by Hamze Tehfe and operated by Khaled Tehfe, was sued for allegedly selling or possessing for sale at least 2,608 counterfeit items with a retail value of at least $444,230. And Bell of California No. 1 Inc.—located at 220 E. Pico Blvd. and whose owners and operators are Hector Barraza, Linda Castro, Elsa Barraza, Claudia Venegas and Francisca Morrone— was sued for allegedly selling or possessing for sale at least 546 counterfeit items with a retail value of $446,360.

#8232;The lawsuits seek a permanent injunction to close the stores and restrict the defendants from returning to the Fashion District. Authorities seek penalties of up to $2,500 for each violation of California’s anti-counterfeiting laws.

Knockoff seasonThe sale of counterfeit merchandise in Los Angeles is an ongoing problem pursued constantly by a team of city, county and federal authorities. Every holiday season, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department raid Santee Alley to remind shoppers that some of those bargains really are too good to be true.

Last year during the holiday season, the Los Angeles Police Department made 10 arrests and seized $4.06 million worth of counterfeit goods. Most of the merchandise was seized from vendors and flea markets downtown, including Santee Alley.

A study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. found that in 2005 counterfeit goods cost the retail sector $2 billion in losses. Piracy of DVDs and CDs means that 106,000 jobs are lost every year across nine business sectors for a total annual loss of $4.4 billion in wages.