Wholesaler admits to conspiracy to sell military and government knock-off goods

A WHOLESALER pleaded guily in U.S. District Court in Providence to charges related to selling the military, the U.S. government and suppliers of the U.S. government counterfeit Chinese-made goods. / COURTESY CAROL M. HIGHSMITH
A WHOLESALER pleaded guily in U.S. District Court in Providence to charges related to selling the military, the U.S. government and suppliers of the U.S. government counterfeit Chinese-made goods. / COURTESY CAROL M. HIGHSMITH

PROVIDENCE – Ramin Kohanbash of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence to charges related to the selling of more than $20 million in counterfeit goods to the United States military, government purchasers and companies that supply the U.S. government, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Kohanbash is a clothing and goods wholesaler. The DOJ said that some of the counterfeit goods included false representations of the products’ safety.

Among other counterfeit items, Kohanbash admitted to arranging to counterfeit 200 parkas of a type used by U.S. Air Force personnel stationed in Afghanistan. The DOJ said that the jackets purported to be made of Multicam, a fabric that is designed to make a wearer more difficult to detect with equipment such as night-vision goggles.

The charges Kohanbash admitted to were wire fraud and trafficking in counterfeit goods.

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Another item was counterfeit hoods that claimed to be flame resistant while not being so. Kohanbash had the goods imported from China, and, with others, worked to make sure that the goods seemed legitimate, including the presentation of false certification letters claiming his goods were U.S. products, and adding trademarks and brand names of U.S.-made products to the imported goods to feign legitimacy.

Kohanbash also admitted that the government is entitled to $20 million in addition to the seized counterfeit goods. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 17.

“Our men and women in uniform confront danger every day to defend this nation and its values,” said U.S. Attorney Aaron L. Weisman in a press release. “The uniforms they wear and the gear they carry are meant to protect them as they carry out their mission, not to put them in harm’s way. This case should serve notice that suppliers who do business with the military must comply with the law, or they will be held to account.”

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