Counterfeit sales gang jailed, fined

Five members of a gang who sold counterfeit Nike, Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton products online to overseas buyers were fined and sentenced to up to five years in jail, the Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court announced on Thursday.

According to prosecutors, starting in August 2006, the five people started using e-commerce platforms and websites to sell fake branded goods.

The gang rented two houses in Shanghai's Putuo District and Gong'an County in Hubei Province as their customer service office. They also employed a customer service team to post ads on overseas websites and forums.

After customers ordered goods, a purchasing team bought knockoffs from domestic markets and shipped them overseas.

The payments were made via bank wire transfer and Western Union remittance.

Members of the customer service and purchasing teams were charged in separate cases.

Three chief culprits, surnamed You, Kang and Wang, were respectively found responsible for maintaining the website and managing sales, keeping accounts and paying salaries, purchasing knockoffs and delivering goods.

Between August 2006 and May 2018, the gang sold knockoffs of 34 registered trademarks from home and abroad for over 25.6 million yuan (US$3.6 million).

You, Kang and Wang were given jail terms of four years and nine months to five years, as well as fines of 3.5 million to 4 million yuan.

One accomplice, surnamed Dai, was ruled to be jailed for two years and nine months and fined 1 million yuan. Another accomplice, surnamed Xu, was given a sentence of one and a half years in jail with reprieve and a fine of 100,000 yuan.