Hermès counterfeiter sentenced to life

The AmeriKat, definitely
not sporting a Hermes
scarf...sadly...

The AmeriKat was saddened to have missed her and the IPKat's good friend, Michael Lin (Marks & Clerk - Hong Kong) during his recent visit to London and was further saddened when she was informed that he would be missing the AmeriKat during her upcoming trip to Hong Kong.  However, she was delighted when an e-mail from Michael plopped into her inbox with news of a recent Chinese counterfeiting case involving Hermès.  Michael reports:

"In a recent case out of China’s Heyuan Intermediate People’s Court, Xiao Zhenjiang, the leader of a counterfeiting gang was sentenced to life in prison and all of his belongings and property was ordered confiscated for counterfeiting almost GB £9,900,000 of luxury goods, specifically HERMÈS handbags/purses. The other gang members received sentences of from seven to ten years imprisonment and fines from GB £49,000 to GB £78,000. According to the Heyuan court, here, Xiao was reportedly a repeat-offender and the gang was allegedly passing off the goods as genuine. 

This case stands out due to both the severity of the sentences as well as the huge amount of counterfeit goods at stake. Furthermore, the court specifically referred to the market value of the goods if they had been genuine, a calculation not often seen in Chinese counterfeiting cases. Such a calculation has important implications in criminal sentencing and whether or not the prosecutor will accept a case for criminal prosecution. Thus, this case is good news for brand owners, as the anti-counterfeiting group QBPC has been advocating for this type of value calculation for many years. 

Due to the adverse effects on patient health, harsher, multi-year imprisonment sentences are becoming more common in cases relating to counterfeit pharmaceuticals and health products. However; this is the first case I’ve seen which provides such long sentences for counterfeiting luxury goods. "

Yikes.....the AmeriKat wonders if this sentence will indeed have the deterrent effect that this type of sentence is obviously designed to have.  She hopes that Michael will keep her and readers updated on any developments.

Heyuan here.
Hey Yuan here.
Hey Juan here.