usa Charges: Seattle handbag seller caught with 33,700 fake coach handbags

King County prosecutors have filed counterfeiting charges against a Seattle man allegedly caught with 33,700 fake designer handbags, sunglasses and luxury items.

The charges against Touray Burama, 45, follow a years-long investigation into a counterfeit handbag ring whose members were known to sell their goods out of several storefronts and on downtown Seattle streets.

According to court documents, the investigation launched in 2007 netted 40,000 items -- from counterfeit basketball shoes to sunglasses to brand-name handbags -- worth $18 million had they been authentic.

In charging documents, Seattle police contend 33,700 items were seized in a search of Burama's Belltown residence. Among the items seized were 1,000 items purportedly manufactured by Coach and another 1,000 bunk Prada items. Police also uncovered $180,000 in cash from a storage locker allegedly associated with Burama.

The charges follow a Seattle police investigation into several businesses thought to be dealing in counterfeit brand-name merchandise, according to investigators' statements and search-warrant requests. Detectives and private investigators hired by the copyright holders made numerous undercover purchases of counterfeit goods, which resulted in counterfeiting charges against 10 people in February 2010; eight defendants have since pleaded guilty.

In May 2008, undercover officers purchased Air Jordan sneakers at a Rainier Avenue South business, Seattle Detective Dave Redemann said in court documents. They followed that purchase with a second buy -- a Coach purse sold for $50 -- at another location on South Jackson Street.

Describing an undercover operation at Touray's store -- EB's Fine Handbags at 2308 Fourth Ave. -- investigators said they found that most of the bags for sale there did not have tags sewn on. Instead, according to a federal search warrant affidavit, Touray offered to add the tags post purchase.

"(An undercover officer) asked the worker if the handbag on the wall was a 'Kate Spade,'" investigators said in search warrants filed in U.S. District Court. "The worker stated that the handbag was in fact a 'Kate Spade' and that he could sell it to her. However, he needed to sew on a 'Kate Spade' logo for her."

The store's owner, who was not charged alongside the 10 alleged conspirators, later saw $180,000 forfeited to the federal government. Speaking with police, one of the defendants said he usually paid about $25 for a bogus designer purse, which he then would sell for $30 to $40.

"He sells only on weekends and makes $400 to $500 a weekend," Redemann said in court documents. "He said he pays his bills with the money and then reinvests the rest in the business."

Touray has now been charged in King County Superior Court with two counts of counterfeiting. Prosecutors have not asked that he be jailed in the case.

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