NEW JERSEY BUSINESSMAN SENTENCED IN COUNTERFEIT NIKE AIR FORCE ONE SCAM

COUNTERFEIT NIKE AIR FORCE 1

A New Jersey businessman who took part in an international conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods including Nike sneakers was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in federal prison.The Totowa, New Jersey man was arrested on charges that he imported and sold large shipments of counterfeit sneakers and Disney blankets from China.

Aref Abuhadba, 49, who also has a residence in Wyckoff, surrendered to federal agents, according to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

He was convicted of receiving more than 70 shipments of the sneakers, produced to replicate Nike products, and blankets and comforters passed off as Walt Disney products, between 2003 and 2010.

The shipments were allegedly coordinated by a middleman in the People's Republican of China, where the products were made, Fishman said.

Once they arrived in the U.S. Abuhadba arranged for the goods to be delivered to warehouses around the county, before making their way to stores. According to Fishman, he received a fee of $42,000 per container, with the rest of the profits being wired back to co-conspirators in China and elsewhere.

The scheme caught the eye of federal authorities in 2008, when customs officers in Los Angeles intercepted a container bound for Abuhadba's home in Totowa. Inside, they found more than 10,000 pairs of Nike's Air Force One sneakers, the genuine versions of which would have a retail value of around $1.5 million.

After the seizures, Abuhadba wrote numerous emails to his co-conspirator in China discussing the lost inventory and encouraging him to write to customs officials and characterize its being sent to Abuhadba as a mistake, according to Fishman. Those emails were later seized as part of an investigation into the scheme.

Abuhadba was charged with international conspiracy to import and sell counterfeit goods, which carried a maximum prison term of five years.