Word: bogus
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...Battling Bogus Bags...
...fashion business, of course. Product ideas have always trickled down from the high-end runways to the mass market. In the past, designers often took pride in their work being copied. But that was before counterfeiting became a multibillion-dollar, multinational business. Knock-off luxury products--particularly the bogus designer bags coming out of China, where the majority of them originate--have become a mortal threat. "Ten years ago we said it wasn't a problem, that it was even proof of our success," says Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of France's anti-counterfeiting lobbying group Union des Fabricants...
Authorities recognize that counterfeit trafficking is part of a broader, organized-crime problem. In June, U.S. immigration and customs-enforcement agents busted 17 people for smuggling tens of millions of dollars' worth of bogus Louis Vuitton, Prada, Coach, Chanel, Christian Dior and Fendi merchandise in thirty 40-ft. containers through Port Elizabeth, N.J. According to the customs officials, 15 of the defendants are Chinese nationals who are part of two separate crime networks that use shell companies to import counterfeit luxury goods from China and distribute them through storefronts on Canal Street. Each organization paid undercover agents...
...global trail of bogus goods generally begins in workshops in the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, near Hong Kong, and Zhejiang, south of Shanghai. Both regions are centers for legitimate manufacturing of leather goods, so getting raw materials and other supplies is relatively easy. (Some luxury companies, like Coach, manufacture in China, while others, like Louis Vuitton, are manufactured only in Europe and the U.S.) "The machines that companies use as legitimate manufacturers are also available to the bad guys," says Timothy Trainer, president of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition. The factories disguise the contents of containers with foodstuffs or other consumer...
...appear that Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress were to blame for drawing us into this ill-advised war. If that is their game, it will not work. Chalabi clearly had interests of his own to promote, but the Bush Administration was not without resources to verify the bogus information he provided. If it points to Chalabi as the source of our misfortune, the Administration will only reveal new depths of incompetence in dealing with the post-9/11 world. PETER S. MARSHALL Bellevue, Wash...