The Colombian designer, whose work has been coveted by celebrities around the world, from pop star Britney Spears to the cast of HBO's hit series “Sex and the City,” unveiled a line of luxury handbags on Monday. He was found guilty of illegally shipping and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Tour exotic reptile skins from Miami to New York.
Nancy Teresa González de Barberi spent only a month or two in prison in this country, having already been imprisoned in her home country for most of that time before being extradited to the United States last August. Only.
In November, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to conspiracy and smuggling charges in Miami federal court without taking a plea deal as his defense and U.S. prosecutors were at odds over evidence. Gonzalez, 70, will remain on bail until June 6, when U.S. District Judge Robert Scola orders his surrender to prison authorities.
Her lawyers, Sam Rabin and Andrea Lopez, who argued for no prison time in the United States, said Scola's decision was “very fair.” Prosecutors asked her judge to give her two and a half years in prison.
Despite the damage to the designer's reputation, her brand name “Nancy Gonzalez” was once so topical among haute couture connoisseurs that actor Stanley Tucci starred in the hit film “Prada”. They even promoted the handbag's status in the magazine “The Devil Wears It'' to commemorate its status.
Gonzalez has sold her bags to the likes of “Princess of Pop” Britney Spears, Salma Hayek and Victoria Beckham for more than $2,000 each. She claimed that the products her company shipped via Miami to high-end retailers in New York were made with the skins of farmed reptiles such as caimans and pythons, rather than the skins of protected wildlife species. , this is contrary to the prosecution's view of the evidence.
Gonzalez's lawyers argue that Gonzalez's handbags, handbags and wallets are made from the skins of captive-bred caimans and pythons, and are technically made from wild animals protected under the International Endangered Species Act. He said that it was not something that had happened. It also pointed out that she had the proper licenses and declarations for most of the products she shipped to the United States. She further claims that only some of her products were sent without the necessary documentation because she was in a hurry to get her products to her New York showroom. did.
Prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice disagree, citing the filed indictment, which says Gonzalez used couriers to transport hundreds of handbags through Miami without proper permits or declarations. He claimed that he had illegally imported products made from the skins of endangered caimans and pythons to New York. In South Florida.
“Business pressures, production deadlines, and other economic factors can lead to someone deliberately bypassing the system and creating their own exceptions to wildlife trafficking laws,” U.S. Attorney Markenzie Lapointe said in a statement after Monday's sentencing. There is no justification for doing so.”
The indictment charges the designer, her New York-based company Guzuniga, and two employees who worked at her Colombian manufacturing company.
On Monday, a judge ordered Guzuniga, who pleaded guilty along with Gonzalez, to forfeit the inventory of handbags previously seized by federal authorities and ban the company from any activities related to the commercial wildlife trade for three years. He was also sentenced to three years in prison.
Her colleague Diego Mauricio Rodríguez Giraldo, who also pleaded guilty, was sentenced to nearly two years in prison, but he had already served time in Colombia before being extradited and in Miami while in pre-trial detention. His achievements were recognized. Another of her colleagues, John Camilo Aguilar Jarmillo, also pleaded guilty to her in April and is awaiting sentencing.
The indictment alleges that Ms. Gonzalez, her U.S. corporation Ms. Guzuniga, and two other defendants recruited friends, relatives, and employees of her manufacturing company in Colombia to fly couriers while traveling on passenger planes. He is accused of carrying hundreds of designer handbags on himself or transporting them in his luggage. It served Miami International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport from February 2016 to April 2019.
Prosecutors say another of Gonzalez's employees, Paola Soto, played a key role as a courier. She pled guilty to conspiracy and smuggling charges in 2022 and received her first two-and-a-half year prison sentence under a plea agreement with prosecutors Tom Watts Fitzgerald and RJ Powers. However, because she cooperated as a witness against Gonzalez and other defendants, her sentence was reduced to about nine months.
Another employee, Eric Schneider, general manager of the Guzuniga showroom in Manhattan, also pleaded guilty in 2022 to a misdemeanor charge of cooperating with prosecutors. He was found guilty of “knowingly” selling approximately 1,000 designer caiman skin handbags and clutches made from endangered species that were illegally imported from Colombia.
“Once the designer handbags were smuggled into the United States, they were delivered or shipped to the Guzuniga showroom in Manhattan, New York, where they were displayed by luxury retailers for viewing and purchase for resale in their stores.” said a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami after Gonzalez's extradition last year. “The average retail price of these 'Nancy Gonzalez' brand handbags was over $2,000.”
The Colombians' ingenious wallets were sold at Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, and other upscale department stores. They also embraced the characters from HBO's wildly popular romantic comedy series, Sex in the City, set in the very New York borough of Manhattan where Gonzalez first gained much attention. was.
