Retailer pleads guilty to counterfeit sales

A Murphys business owner pleaded guilty to trafficking counterfeit designer handbags and other items Dec. 10 after being indicted by a federal grand jury in June. Dana Lanthier, Hathaway Pines, owner of Sac A Main in Murphys, could be fined millions of dollars and put in state prison for up to 10 years at her sentencing March 25. Between April 2007 and March 22, 2010, Lanthier intentionally trafficked counterfeit purses, sunglasses, wallets, cell phone covers and other items, the indictment said. According to Sgt. Chris Villegas of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office, in 2007 a customer alerted the sheriff’s office that there were counterfeit purses being sold at Sac A Main. “A deputy warned the store owner to stop selling them,” Villegas said. “She said she would stop selling them.” The sheriff’s report on the incident stated that Lanthier told the deputy that she had brought a shipment of handbags back from Little Italy in New York in early May 2007. The report said Lanthier told the deputy that she advised customers that the handbags were replicas, not originals. “We got another report about a year later saying she was still selling counterfeit purses,” Villegas said. This time, Detective Wade Whitney of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office paid Lanthier’s store a visit. Whitney noticed a variety of high-end purses being sold for between $25 and $80, the report said. “We then turned the investigation over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Villegas said. FBI Special Agent John W. Ogden took over the investigation and gathered enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for Lanthier’s business, home and vehicles. Ogden visited Sac A Main on Nov. 24, 2009, and confirmed that Lanthier was still selling wallets and handbags with Dolce & Gabbana and Prada emblems on them, the report said, adding that Lanthier told Ogden that she had “lots of fakes” for sale, the report said. The next month, Ogden and Senior Deputy Heather Camisa of the Sheriff’s Office purchased several items from the store. Ogden noticed that the mark on a fake Dolce & Gabbana wallet he had purchased was loose. “I asked Lanthier if she had another,” Ogden said. “Lanthier took the wallet from me and used what appeared to be pliers to remove the mark from the bag. Lanthier then made the statement, 'I make these things, you know.'” Ogden said Lanthier then took another Dolce & Gabbana emblem from a plastic bag containing a number of them and affixed it to the wallet. Evidence gathered by Ogden was given to an investigative consultant named Victor Murillo, who is an expert in identifying counterfeit merchandise.