Separating the Real From the Bogus in Little Saigon

There was quite a stir in Little Saigon last week as three dozen police and private investigators--armed with search warrants, video cameras and empty boxes--swooped down on Asian Gardens Mall.

The target: 10 merchants who police say traded in bogus goods. Investigators wound up seizing 6,000 apparent imitations of Rolex, Chanel, Louis Vatton and other famous trademarks. No arrests were made.

By Southern California standards, the raid and seizure were hardly extraordinary. Tens of thousands of fake goods are confiscated monthly in the Southland. That’s why the region has the dubious reputation as the hub of trademark forgeries, which cost U.S. industries an estimated $200 billion a year, according to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition.

Yet last week’s raid was striking in one respect: Investigators said it was the first notable seizure of knockoff products in the Vietnamese business district. And they worry that the potentially lucrative counterfeit trade may spread in Little Saigon, if it hasn’t already.

“This is a brand-new area,” said Bill Ellis, vice president of Culver City-based National Trademark Investigations, which alerted and then accompanied police on the raids.

Ellis says he’s been involved in more than 4,000 raids in the last two decades, many of them focused in the Korean and Chinese communities. “This is the first sign of problems in the Vietnamese community,” he said.

Westminster police confirmed the basic facts of the raid and seizure but declined further comment, saying the investigation is continuing. At least one of the merchants could be charged with a felony under a year-old California law that raised the penalty for those possessing, making or selling more than 1,000 counterfeit items.

Ellis said the Asian Gardens Mall merchants who were peddling the goods told investigators they bought the products in Los Angeles, probably at the notorious Santee Alley Downtown. In most cases, the fake goods were obvious: A Gucci watch that might cost $10,000, for example, was selling for $35.

The raid was triggered by other merchants in the mall who complained to manufacturers that they were having trouble competing with retailers of bogus goods. The manufacturers, in turn, contacted Ellis’ outfit, which sent out undercover investigators to buy some fake merchandise.

Some of the merchants made no bones about what they were selling, Westminster police said, adding that one store employee readily told a customer that the goods were counterfeit.

Don Lee covers workplace issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at Don.Lee@latimes.com.