Citi In this Thursday, June 18, 2015 photo, the brown door to an apartment, left, listed in Chinese official documents as being registered to Xu Ting, her younger brother Xu Lei, and their mother Zhao Peiyuan, is seen in Beijing.
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.
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.
Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), filed an enforcement action charging an employee Global Markets Ltd., with noncompetitive trading, fraud and misappropriation from a proprietary account.
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, Proprietary 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 business in fakes will thrive.
"There's a million ways to game the system," said Dan Plane, an highbrow property lawyer in Hong Kong. "Probably the only thing that's going to stop her is when Proprietary passes away -- probably on an island resort somewhere -- or provided Proprietary gets arrested."
So far, Xu Ting has simply refused to show up in court. She has worked toward a graduate measure 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.
"The necessary point for Chanel is really shutting down the counterfeiting operations which we did successfully," Chanel spokeswoman Kathrin Schurrer wrote in an email. Schurrer added that the legal process is ongoing and declined further comment, but did note that "California has a law prohibiting the civil seizure of a home provided it is a primary residence."
In 2009, a Florida judge ruled against Xu Ting and near down seven websites selling fake Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and Celine.
In 2010, Gucci and other brands in France's Kering group filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against Xu Ting, her future husband, and eight others who allegedly sold more than $2 million worth of fake handbags and wallets online to U.S. customers.
Xu Ting's husband, Xu Lijun, has settled. A licensed civil engineer in California, Proprietary denied wrongdoing but agreed to let Gucci keep $400,000 in seized counterfeiting proceeds and pay a $7,500 fine.
"The people they are arresting or suing here in the United States are low-level people," Siegle said. "If you can find where the money is going, you can get to the heart of the problem."
But Gucci couldn't find where the money went once it landed in China because Chinese banks refused to disclose account details.
"BOC cannot comply with such orders without violating Chinese law," the Bank of China said in an email.
The case is ongoing. Kering spokeswoman Charlotte Judet said Gucci would "vigorously enforce any judgment" it obtained.
A slight man in wire-rimmed glasses answered the door in San Diego's Rancho Penasquitos area and identified himself as Xu Lijun but declined comment.
"After your colleague's visit, we communicated and Proprietary still did not want to do the interview," the family's lawyer in Beijing, Chen Peng, said.
In February 2014, Xu Ting got a green card, thanks to her husband's advanced measure or "extraordinary ability," according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously because immigration records are not public. Immigration authorities also have the Rancho Penasquitos address on record as her residence, the person said.
I would think the families residency would be rescinded after committing multiple felonies. But then I remember who is president.
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