Nov. 2, 2018 By Christian Murray
A Middle Village man who smuggled 200 containers of counterfeit goods from China into the United was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison today and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Su Ming Ling, 50, pleaded guilty in January to smuggling fake Nike shoes, UGG boots and NFL jerseys, among other fake items, into the country between May 2013 and January 2017. The goods if sold as genuine would have retailed for about $297 million, according to authorities.
“With today’s sentence, Ling has been held responsible for illegally importing millions of dollars’ worth of knockoff goods that displace consumer demand for companies’ products,” said United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue in a statement.
Ling hired licensed customs brokers and gave them forms with misleading information about what was in the containers that were bound for warehouses in Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey.
“This defendant smuggled massive amounts of counterfeit goods into the country, harming legitimate businesses and short changing consumers who thought they were getting authentic products,” Brian Michael, an investigator with the Homeland Security, said.
