The main suspect in the money laundering case is the Chinese Bei W. from Lelystad. According to the Public Prosecution Service, she received large sums of cash by an underground banker. W. spent that money at various Dutch branches of Louis Vuitton, where she bought and had hundreds of thousands of euros from brand bags and clothing buy. The luxury products then sent them in praxis boxes to China and Hong Kong, according to the OM that such boxes filled with Louis Vuitton products in the suspect’s house and a DHL sorting center found. According to the OM, W. received help from a Louis Vuitton employee, who is a co-suspect in the case. She would have passed on information about new products and keep in mind that no more than 10,000 euros would be spent each time – from that amount companies must report cash payments to prevent money laundering.
If consumers in China and Hong Kong pay for packages sent by post, the money is ‘laundered’, from one side of the world to the other. The OM must now prove that the women knew it was crime money that made the transactions of luxury products.
What exactly is Louis Vuitton suspected?
Justice believes that Louis Vuitton did not do enough to prevent money laundering, as it turned out last week, where it Ad Friday about reported. The company should have monitored the cash payments sharper and report it, according to the OM. At a later stage of the trial, the judiciary decides whether it will continue the Dutch branch of Louis Vuitton.
Chief Officer of Justice Michiel Zwinkels hinted in an interview NRC Already on the case this spring. He spoke of “a system in which Chinese students in Europe with cash from underground bankers, for example, buy expensive bags, watches and jewels in PC Hooftstraat. Those things then go to China to be sold there.” For example, the money spent in the Netherlands gets an apparently legal origin in China, says Zwinkels. He described this practice with the Chinese understanding Daigou, “Buy on behalf of someone else.” This often happens with luxury products that are channeled in China and that avoids payment of import tax.
Even more bad news for Louis Vuitton: the company is in the lead in a counterfeit ranking. What about that?
This week it turned out a report From tech company Entrupy that Louis Vuitton is the most counterfeit luxury brand, good for a third of all forged luxury goods. Gucci and Chanel follow at an appropriate distance, both of which make up more than 13 percent of the forged products. Entrupy states With the help of AI the authenticity of luxury brands products. A device can determine with more than 99 percent accuracy whether a product has been copied. Here too an East Asian link plays. More than 30 percent of all counterfeit products that were intercepted on the European borders last year come from China and Hong Kong. Louis Vuitton in particular in the US is the crown. There, for $ 640 million, products from the French fashion brand have been copied there.