Celebrity handbag designer sentenced to 18 months in prison for smuggling crocodile handbags

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Celebrity handbag designer sentenced to 18 months in prison for smuggling crocodile handbags

BY JOSHUA GOODMAN
Updated 1:11 PM EDT, April 22, 2024

MIAMI (AP) — A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the “Sex and the City” TV series was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.

Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the U.S. for running a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms and New York fashion events — all in violation of U.S. wildlife laws.

“It’s all driven by the money,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald, who compared Gonzalez’s behavior to that of drug traffickers. “If you want to deter the conduct, you want the cocaine kingpin, not the person in the field.”

Lawyers for Gonzalez sought leniency for the celebrity designer, describing her journey as a divorced single mother of two children who designed belts on a home sewing machine in Cali for friends into a fashion icon who outcompeted the likes of Dior, Prada and Gucci.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/fashion-designer-sentenced-nancy-gonzalez-d636a371d13bb1a912adc89679a80c0d

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1. No sympathy from here.

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2. No pity

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3. More details

Prosecutors accused the designer of carrying and having couriers carry handbags from Colombia to the U.S. without first obtaining the import authorizations needed to trade in endangered and threatened wildlife species.

The types of skins Gonzalez was accused of smuggling, python and a breed of crocodile called caiman, are protected by the rules of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which Gonzalez did not follow when importing the leather according to the Department of Justice.

Prosecutors estimated that Gonzalez smuggled merchandise using dozens of couriers before she was arrested in Colombia and extradited to the U.S., the AP reported (her handbags had an average retail value of more than $2,000 each, according to the DOJ).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2024/04/22/designer-who-made-handbags-for-britney-spears-gets-18-months-for-smuggling-python-crocodile-leather-report-says/?sh=5930c5946fc0