Man Stored Over $1 Million Worth of Counterfeit The North Face Jackets: DA

OLD BETHPAGE, NY - A Jericho man was arrested for allegedly storing and selling tens of thousands of counterfeit The North Face jackets found in an Old Bethpage warehouse on Thursday, according to the Nassau County District Attorney's Office.

Rahul Biswas, aka Kazi Aziz, 56, was arrested after investigators executed two search warrants for the storage space inside of the warehouse as well as his office in Jericho, the DA said.

Biswas operates a business called TRB Designs and Resources, Inc. and neither the company nor Biswas are authorized as a The North Face distributor or retailer, the DA said.

During the execution of the warrants, DA investigators seized more than 20,000 counterfeit jackets that were shipped to the New York area from Bangladesh, the DA said. The jackets were worth an estimated street value of over $1 million, the DA said.

Investigators also located two Bangladeshi passports, one in Biswas’ name and another in an alias, as well as business and shipping records, according to the DA.

According to industry experts, the counterfeit jackets, which sold for a half to a third of the cost of the genuine product, are of inferior quality and do not provide the warmth of genuine jackets.

Biswas is accused of allegedly importing the jackets and selling them to other distributors, the DA said.

He was charged with first degree trademark counterfeiting, the DA said.

Bail was set at $100,000 cash or bond and Biswas was ordered to surrender any passports he has in any other names. He is due back in court March 6 and faces up to five to 15 years if convicted.

“Counterfeit products can pose unseen safety threats to those who purchase them, and the trafficking of cheap knockoffs causes harm to consumers, trademark holders, their employees and families,” DA Madeline Singas said. “Working with our federal law enforcement partners we will aggressively protect consumers in Nassau County.”

In the past two years, the Nassau DA and our federal partners have seized nearly 80,000 counterfeit The North Face products.

“These seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided the critical link to an ongoing investigation that resulted in the takedown of an elaborate criminal enterprise,” Leon Hayward, acting director of the DHS New York Field Office said. “It is through our interagency partnerships, and collaborative approaches like the one leading to today’s arrests, that law enforcement successfully combats modern criminal organizations.”

Photos: Nassau County DA