A ringleader who sold counterfeit luxury handbags and watches from Vietnam has been arrested through Interpol cooperation and repatriated to South Korea.
The Trademark Special Judicial Police under the Korea Intellectual Property Office said on the 8th that it had detained a 32-year-old man, identified as A, on charges of violating the Trademark Act as the head of a counterfeit goods distribution ring, and booked three others without detention, including a 42-year-old accomplice identified as B. They are accused of recruiting and running sales networks of YouTubers and others in Vietnam to sell counterfeit products.
A fled to Vietnam in May last year to evade a crackdown by domestic investigative authorities. From there, he conspired with YouTubers in Korea and abroad through May this year to distribute and sell counterfeit goods in South Korea via live-streamed broadcasts. After fleeing to Vietnam, A initially supplied counterfeit products to three people, including B, a YouTuber operating in South Korea, and later drew them into the scheme by teaching them sales techniques.
When the trademark police raided the offices of B and other accomplices in South Korea in July last year, A changed his methods, recruiting more than 10 local YouTubers in Vietnam to form a sales organization and continue the operation. A built a corporate-style ring for distributing and selling counterfeit goods, regularly recruiting individual sellers with offers of local room and board and promises of high earnings.
The trademark police raided the offices of accomplices who sold counterfeit products through live broadcasts and seized about 8,000 counterfeit items, including handbags and clothing. The seized goods would be worth roughly 3.7 billion won if genuine.
The trademark police conducted a joint international investigation with Interpol, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and the Korean National Police Agency, obtaining a domestic arrest warrant and taking steps to secure custody, including invalidating his passport and issuing an Interpol red notice. Working with the South Korean Embassy in Vietnam and Vietnamese investigative authorities, they arrested A in Vietnam in May this year and repatriated him to South Korea on the 5th of last month.
Jung Yeon-woo, deputy commissioner of the Korea Intellectual Property Office, said, "We will continue to do our utmost to block the distribution of counterfeit goods by thoroughly tracking not only individual sellers but also suppliers and the upper levels of these organizations."
