Man sentenced to prison over fake Nike trainers
A man based in Portland, Oregon has been sentenced to four months in prison for selling counterfeit Nike trainers online.
James Pepion was also sentenced to three years supervised release after serving his time in prison.
According to a release from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Pepion offered rare Nike trainers for sale through online platforms such as Instagram, eBay, and Shopify.
Between June 2013 and September 2015, Pepion wired nearly $175,000 to sellers in China. Almost all of the money was for counterfeit shoes and packaging.
“Pepion combined the proceeds of the sales of these counterfeit Nike sneakers with the proceeds of sales of authentic sneakers in various financial accounts in order to conceal the illegal source of much of his income,” said ICE.
Nike received numerous complaints regarding the fraudulent sales.
Pepion previously pleaded guilty to one count each of trafficking in counterfeit goods and money laundering in June 2017.
This case is the result of a probe by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and IRS Criminal Investigation, and was prosecuted by Ryan Bounds and Julia Jarrett, assistant US attorneys for the District of Oregon.
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