US gang arrested in fake perfume conspiracy

Five US men have been arrested by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit for participating in a scheme to distribute fake branded perfumes in the US.

Patrick Badal, Kaium Shah, Kenny Ni, Abul Kashem, and Parvez Shazzed were arrested on Wednesday, May 25 and face charges of conspiracy to traffic counterfeit goods.

The arrests stem  from an investigation by the HSI, US Customs and Border Protection and the New York police department.

The investigation lasted from December 2014 to May 2016 and the defendants, known as the ‘Counterfeit Perfume Ring’, were allegedly importing “generic liquid fragrances” from China.

They would package the fragrances with counterfeit packaging and sold them to illegal perfume wholesalers in New York and “at least” six other states.

The gang then used seven locations to prepare and distribute its products including ‘the port’ in Newark, ‘the temporary warehouse’ where the goods were moved to, ‘packaging facilities’ where they were repackaged, ‘the storage facility’ where it would transfer the goods to a self-storage facility, and ‘the freight forwarder’ where the gang would distribute the goods to wholesalers in New York.

Badal, Shah, Ni, Kashem, and Shazzed are charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic counterfeit goods and one count of trafficking counterfeit goods. Each of these carries up to ten years in prison.

In addition, Badal, Shah, Ni, and Kashem are each charged with one count of trafficking counterfeit packaging, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Shah and Badal are also charged with smuggling goods into the US, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.