US-based Thai woman jailed for defruading US department stores
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A US Federal Court has sentenced a Thai woman to 30 months in jail and fined her Bt14 million for running a multi-year scheme to defraud department stores across the US.
Praepitcha Smatsorabudh, 41, of Arlington, Virginia, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
She was ordered to pay US$403,250 (Bt14.5 million) in forfeiture of not doing that and ordered to pay the same amount in restitution to her victims.
According to court documents, she bought brand name purses, including Gucci, Burberry and Fendi, online and returned in their place counterfeit purses. The purses were smuggled into the country from China.
She sold the authentic purses on Instagram and e-bay for more than $2,000 each.
In a bid to avoid detection, Praepitcha made fraudulent returns at over 60 department-store locations in 12 states.
In total, her scheme defrauded department stores out of more than $400,000.
