Designer who smuggled purses made from python and caiman sentenced to 18 months in jail

Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the U.S. for operating a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that concerned recruiting couriers to move her purses on business flights to high-end showrooms and New York style occasions — all in violation of U.S. wildlife legal guidelines.

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

Legal professionals for Gonzalez sought leniency for the superstar designer, describing her journey as a divorced single mom of two kids who designed belts on a house stitching machine in Cali for buddies right into a style icon who outcompeted the likes of Dior, Prada and Gucci.

“She was determined to show her children and the world that women, including minority women like herself, can pursue their dreams successfully, and become financially independent,” they wrote in a memo previous to Monday’s listening to. “Against all odds, this tiny but mighty woman was able to create the very first luxury, high-end fashion company from a third world country.”

The attorneys mentioned the 71-year-old designer has already paid dearly for her crimes. The Colombian firm she constructed, which as soon as employed 300 largely feminine staff, declared chapter and stopped working after her arrest.

Additionally they argued that only one% of the merchandise she imported into the U.S. lacked correct authorization and had been samples for New York Trend week and different occasions.

Gonzalez, addressing the courtroom earlier than sentencing, mentioned she deeply regretted not meticulously complying with U.S. legal guidelines and that her solely want is to hug as soon as extra her 103-year-old mom.

“From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to the United States of America. I never intended to offend a country to which I owe immense gratitude,” she mentioned holding again tears. “Under pressure, I made poor decisions.”

Prosecutors countered that Gonzalez had acquired nice wealth and an opulent way of life, which contrasted with the couriers she recruited to smuggle her merchandise into america. The couriers had been instructed to say that the gadgets had been items for his or her kinfolk in the event that they had been requested any questions by customs brokers.

“Her mission turned into producing felons,” mentioned Watts-Fitzgerald. “She tried to rewrite the law for herself, to do it her way.”

Based on the testimony of her co-defendants and former staff, forward of vital style occasions, Gonzalez, described as a micro-manager, would recruit as many as 40 passengers to hold 4 designer purses every on business flights. On this approach, prosecutors estimate that she smuggled items that fetched as a lot as $2 million within the U.S. Gonzalez’s attorneys disputed the declare and mentioned every pores and skin value solely round $140.

The entire hides had been from caiman and pythons bred in captivity. Nonetheless, on some events she did not acquire the right import authorizations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, required beneath a extensively ratified worldwide treaty governing the commerce in endangered and threatened wildlife species.

In 2016 and 2017, she was warned by U.S. officers in opposition to sidestepping such guidelines, making her conduct notably “egregious,” Decide Robert Scola mentioned in handing down his sentence.

Prosecutors had been searching for a stiffer sentence of 30 to 37 months. However Scola mentioned he was considering the almost 14 months she spent in harsher situations in a Colombian jail awaiting extradition. Gonzalez, who has been free on a bond beneath confinement at her daughter’s house in Miami, should give up June 6 to start her sentence.

Though commerce within the skins utilized by Gonzalez was not prohibited, they got here from protected wildlife that requires shut monitoring beneath the Conference on Worldwide Commerce in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, recognized by its initials as CITES.

Salma Hayek, Britney Spears and Victoria Beckham are amongst celebrities who purchased Gonzalez’s rigorously crafted purses. Her work additionally was included in a 2008 exhibition on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York.

Gonzalez’s attorneys confirmed in courtroom a video, from 2019, of high consumers from Bergdorf Goodman, Saks and others praising the designer’s creativity, productiveness and humanity — feedback prosecutor Watts-Fitzgerald mentioned the retailers doubtless remorse in the present day.

“They must be regretting they were ever put up to that and if they heard it was presented in court they would cringe,” mentioned Watts-Fitzgerald. “They have their own brand to protect.”