NEW YORK CITY — A Staten Island man smuggled in more than $2.5 million worth of fake UGG boots and planned to sell them around New Jersey, federal prosecutors said.
Shi Wei Zheng, 42, pleaded guilty Tuesday to trafficking in counterfeit goods after he received containers of fake UGG boots through the Port of Newark, Acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick announced.
From Sept. 2016 until Feb. 2017, Zheng received at least three containers worth of the bogus boots from the port and asked workers there to remove them before they could be examined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, prosecutors said.
Zheng paid people more than $50,000 for the deliveries and planned to distribute the 15,000 boots to others who worked for him to sell.
Before Zheng could distribute the boots, law enforcement intercepted the containers, found they were counterfeit and arrested him on March 7, 2017, authorities said.
He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $2 million fine for the crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 23, 2018.
