Chinese counterfeiter California dreaming

SHANGHAI – The Chinese woman has a history of selling counterfeit luxury goods. She has been sued in the U.S. by eight luxury brands. She owes Chanel Inc. $6.9 million for selling products online under its name.

None of it has stopped Xu Ting, a 45-year-old immigrant, from achieving a comfortable suburban life in San Diego with her husband and their 3-year-old son. Last year, she became a legal resident.

China is not the only country with a counterfeiting problem. Most fakes are made in China, but they are sold in America, where counterfeiting is rarely prosecuted as a crime. Lack of cooperation with China makes it easy for counterfeiters to move their money beyond reach – and hard to root out counterfeiting kingpins. As long as counterfeiters can stay out of jail and hold on to their profits – and consumers continue to buy – the trade in fakes will thrive.

“There’s a million ways to game the system,” said Dan Plane, an intellectual property lawyer in Hong Kong. “Probably the only thing that’s going to stop her is when she passes away – probably on an island resort somewhere – or if she gets arrested.”

So far, Xu Ting has simply refused to show up in court. She has worked toward a graduate degree at San Diego State University, helped her family accumulate at least $890,000 in bank accounts in China and bought a $585,000 house with her husband, public records and court cases show.

Associated Press