The crooks who made millions from fake designer bags

THEIR American dream was built on a foundation of fakes.
An unfolding criminal case offers a rare glimpse into how a group of Chinese immigrants turned knockoff Michael Kors bags and Jimmy Choo shoes into a multimillion-dollar business, allowing them to snap up luxury cars, Rolexes and real estate in New York and Florida.

Now the Queens family allegedly at the heart of the $10 million (AUD $11 million) counterfeiting ring stands to lose everything — including their freedom.

Authorities say brother-and-sister duo Chee Kwan "Jimmy" Yim, 43, and Chee Kuen "Janice" Yim, 40, for years had no legitimate source of income, yet they, along with other siblings, had half a dozen properties, as well as diamonds, raw jade, paintings, porcelain vases, a Lexus and tens of thousands of dollars in cash.

It all came with money earned via Goodies Enterprises, a company registered to the Yim family's $1.2 million, 2,400-square-foot Little Neck home, according to prosecutors.

But Goodies Enterprises was all bad, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, which uncovered the international scam after a two-year investigation, arresting Jimmy and Janice Yim, their brother Chee Ching "Steve" Yim, 45, sister Tina Ngan, 31, and associate Anthony Moresco, 64.
When it came to the luxuries they allegedly faked, the Yims, who are naturalized citizens, had a nice selection.

For $2 a pop, they imported plain handbags from China, along with jackets, boots, sunglasses and other wares, and brought them to a Long Island City, Queens, warehouse, where the items were transformed.

Embroidery machines, replica buttons and badges, decals, logos, symbols and manufacturing plates that were used to make the imports look like items from Prada, Coach, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Tory Burch were all recovered from the Queens warehouse, authorities said.

They sold the "luxury" products at too-good-to-be-true prices in Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, Queens and Long Island, where authorities caught wind of the scheme after street sellers began badgering customers in beauty shops and nail salons, peddling the goods for $18 to $25 ($20-$27AUD).

The markup was higher if customers went to a "handbag party", where prices hit $50 to $100, according to the US Attorney's Office, which went to Manhattan federal court last week to seize six properties belonging to the Yims, including their Little Neck home, as well as more than $70,000 ($77,000AUD) cash.

Conducting sales via parties in private homes "is unique, but not surprising," said James Hayes, the Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations, which assisted on the case.

"Just like any other retailer, they're going to try to take advantage of every available avenue" to sell, Hayes said.

It took detectives from the Suffolk DA's Money Laundering and Asset Seizure Team years to build their case against the Yims and Moresco, conducting numerous undercover purchases of the fake goods.

Detectives allegedly paid from $2,000 to $10,000 to the Yims.

Detectives also pored over financial records and tax returns that showed Goodies Enterprises declared no taxable income after deductions from 2010 to 2012, authorities said.

Counterfeiters cost the American economy up to $300 million a year, but the crooks aren't necessarily guaranteed to live large off their crimes, said James Hayes, special agent in charge for Homeland Security investigations, which assisted on the case.

"It depends on what the merchandise is, it depends on the length of time they've been in business, and it depends on the volume," he said.

Between 2010 and 2012, the Yims imported more than 85,000 items from China by ship. A March raid on the firm's Long Island City warehouse collected $10 million worth of fake goods — enough to fill 1,400 boxes, said the Suffolk DA's Office.

Prosecutors seized more than $100,000 in cash when the Yims and Moresco, of Rutherford, NJ, were arrested, as well as the Long Island City warehouse, rental homes in Bayside and Flushing, diamonds, raw jade, Rolexes, paintings, a Lexus SUV, a Honda CRV, two Toyota Sienna minivans, and other property.

Moresco and the Yims, who are scheduled to appear today in Suffolk County Criminal Court, paid down mortgages and living expenses, but also sent "millions of dollars in illegal profits ... back to banks in China" and invested in real estate in China, California, New York and Florida, where they spent $74,000 in 2009 to buy a Chinese buffet in Casselberry, and nearly $400,000 to buy property in Kissimmee, the DA says.

Lawyers for the Yims declined to comment. Janice Yim denied the charges to The Post.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said over the phone. "It's not true. They just want money."

****Homeland Security definitely seems to be involving itself a lot more in US based crime of late.