The City Attorney’s Office sued a Fashion District businesswoman Wednesday, alleging she admitted to undercover officers that she’s been selling counterfeit handbags for up to $1,000 each for years and boasted about how she avoided getting caught.
The lawsuit names Condotti European Inc., located on 9th Street, and its president, Fatemah Vahdat “Nancy” Mahdavi.
The suit seeks civil penalties of $2,500 for each alleged unlawful business practice, not to exceed $1 million, and an injunction enjoining Mahdavi from working “in any business where apparel, luggage, handbags and apparel-related accessories are sold.”
No one answered the phone at Condotti European or responded to a message seeking comment. The suit states the business is located on the 10th floor of the California Market Center, not far from Santee Alley, characterized in the complaint as “one of the epicenters of counterfeit goods in the United States.”
In March, law enforcement officers who had a search warrant found 68 counterfeit replicas of luxury bags with a retail value of $277,880 at Mahdavi’s business, the suit alleges.
“Mahdavi was arrested and told officers she knew it was illegal to sell counterfeit goods and that she purchases counterfeit bags on Canal Street when traveling to New York City,” the suit alleges. “Mahdavi told the officers that she purchases the counterfeit items for between $80 to $400 and sells them for between $140 and $1,000 each.”
Mahdavi said the alleged phony goods were only a small part of her business, where she pays monthly rent of $2,100, according to the suit.
New York City’s Canal Street is located in that metropolis’ Chinatown, and proprietors there also are alleged to be active in the counterfeiting trade.
Commerce in counterfeit goods deprive legitimate retailers of an incentive to create new and innovative products and make it more expensive for them to “compete and thrive in the city of Los Angeles,” according to the lawsuit.
Unlike legitimate owners, counterfeit goods sellers typically do not pay business taxes or have proper insurance or licenses, according to the City Attorney’s Office.
The suit cites a Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. study that found that an “estimated $2 billion was spent in the Los Angeles black market for pirated goods in 2005, representing a substantial loss to the legitimate retail sector and the city’s tax base.”
During another undercover operation in January, Mahdavi said she had just returned from Europe and Turkey and asked if the “customers” were looking for handbags, according to the lawsuit. She went to a back room and returned with several counterfeit bags and wallets resembling those made by Chanel, the suit alleges.
“Mahdavi held one of the handbags and advised it was the best fake handbag you could find,” according to the lawsuit, which alleges she said she had been in business for more than 30 years and was “very careful who she sells to in order to avoid getting caught.”
— Wire reports