The US Justice Department says it uncovered a counterfeit ring involving an employee at the US embassy in South Korea and relating to sales on eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari.
The government arrested the employee and his spouse “for their role in an international conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Korea,” according to the government press release.
The announcement states that, “according to the indictment and other court documents,” the couple allegedly sold counterfeit Vera Bradley handbags from ecommerce accounts to US shoppers from September 2017 through December 2019.
The employee is charged with creating “numerous accounts on a variety of e-commerce platforms, all from within a secure space within the Embassy designed to protect classified information.”
The employee’s wife allegedly took primary responsibility for operating the accounts, communicating with customers, and procuring merchandise to be stored in Oregon, from where a third party allegedly shipped the items to purchasers across the United States.
The government notes that “an indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
The US Department of Justice press release and indictment is available on the Justice.gov website.
