Prominent designer claims responsibility for smuggling python and alligator leather bags
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A Luxury designer Nancy Gonzalez pleaded guilty to illegal importation on Friday the 17th Python and alligator skin smuggling from Colombia for the United States from February 2016 to April 2019.
The 70yearold designer, who became a favorite of celebrities including Victoria Beckham, Britney Spears, Selma Hayek and Kris Jenner, faces 20 years in prison on each of the smuggling charges, in addition to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge. . The designer’s bags cost an average of R$9,800 (US$2,000).
Gonzalez and the other defendants allegedly asked friends, relatives and coworkers to carry the designer handbags in their luggage when they traveled on commercial airlines. The designer was extradited from Colombia to the US earlier this year after being charged by US authorities with smuggling protected animal skins.
The lawyer for GonzalezSam Rabin of Rabin & Lopez said Monday that the designer pleaded guilty “because she has confidence in our courts, but not in the Justice Department and its prosecutors, who have treated her in the most unfair manner.” Rabin also stated That this was the case The actions taken by the government resulted in Gonzalez being “unnecessarily imprisoned with drug traffickers and terrorists in Colombia for over a year while awaiting extradition to the United States, fired from business, and hundreds of employees became unemployed.”
According to the lawyer “less than 1% of bags were imported without documentation. None of the animal skins used in their products came from wildcaught animals. “The skins came from animals raised on farms to ensure they do not impact the wildlife population,” he said.
With information from WWD.
Source: Redação Terra