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Boutique Owner Arrested After Selling $40M Worth Of Fake Designer Goods
Long Island Boutique Owner Arrested After Selling $40M Worth Of Fake Designer Goods
A Long Island “boutique” owner was nabbed with more than $40 million in fake designer goods — part of an illicit cache she peddled around the country, authorities said Tuesday.
Lindsay Castelli, 31, of Smithtown sold faux Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Dior, Ugg, and Louis Vuitton knock-offs to scores of unsuspecting customers through Web sites and her store, officials said.
Nassau County detectives recovered 22 printing presses at the store that were used to create “thousands of synthetic heat-sealed counterfeit labels,” which Castelli would then attach to the cheap clothing items before jacking their price way up, police said.
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“A simple $10 sweatshirt, you put the Chanel brand on it, it sells for $5,300,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a press conference.
“They would take a hat, a $3 hat, a 50-cent item on the side. They would heat seal it onto the hat and sell the hat for $300,’’ Ryder said.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly added, “This was not a mom-and-pop operation. “This was a sophisticated operation operating two fashion merchandise companies, Christian Salvatore New York and Linny’s Boutique,’’ she said, according to CBS.
Castelli was arrested Oct. 7 after a year-and-a-half-long investigation, authorities said.
During her illegal operation, “thousands of pounds’’ of haughty hoaxes were being shipped all over the US to unwitting customers, authorities said. No one else was charged in connection with the massive scam, officials said.
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