GLENDALE : Man Sentenced Over Sale of Fake Clothes

A Glendale man pleaded no contest Thursday to selling fake versions of major brand-name clothing from his Los Angeles sports store, officials said.

Ki Yon Kim, 34, entered the plea during his arraignment before Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner Barry Kohn, who imposed a sentence of 36 months’ probation and 180 hours of Caltrans work. Kohn also ordered Kim to pay $3,000 in investigative costs and donate $2,000 to the Pediatrics AIDS Foundation in Santa Monica, Deputy Los Angeles City Atty. Fay Chu said.

Kim and his wife, Choon Young Kim, 35, were charged in April with two misdemeanor counts each of manufacturing and selling counterfeit goods and one misdemeanor conspiracy count. Kim pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of selling counterfeit goods as part of a plea bargain, Chu said. Charges against his wife were dropped.

“I think it’s a fair disposition,” Chu said. “The person who was pretty much culpable was the husband.”

Investigators were led to the Kims after an agent for the state justice department spotted what he believed was counterfeit clothing being sold at a flea market in July. State agents and Los Angeles police then conducted an undercover buy in October of allegedly counterfeit Stussy and B.U.M. Equipment clothes at the Kims’ store, Dai Yang Sportswear, 2123 S. Main St., in central Los Angeles.

A search warrant was served later that month at the shop, where police seized 4,851 T-shirts and sweat shirts bearing such trademarks as Nike, Hard Rock Cafe and Walt Disney. The items are believed to be worth about $10,000, Chu said.

As part of the sentence, the Kims will also have to sell their five shirt silk-screening machines by September.