Border patrol agents seized three shipments of fake NFL, MLB, and NHL, championship rings that were being delivered from China.
Fox News reported that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers intercepted the shipments and seized a total of 631 replica rings between October 2018 and 2019. The fake rings included replicas of New England Patriots Super Bowl rings and fake World Series rings for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals.
(Note: The ring pictured above is not fake.)
“If authentic, the total rings would have been valued at more than $6,300,000,” Fox reported. “All the packages containing the fake sports memorabilia had been shipped from China and were heading to various U.S. addresses, according to the CBP. The poor packaging and craftsmanship of the merchandise tipped off the officers, who later determined the rings were fakes.”
Michael Neipert, Port Director for CBP Memphis, told the outlet that seizing counterfeit goods is another aspect of the CBP’s responsibilities.
“One of CBP’s responsibilities is to protect Intellectual Property Rights. Our officers do a great job of detecting and seizing counterfeit goods,” he said.
As Fox reported, these are simply the most recent seizures of counterfeit sports memorabilia intercepted from China.
In November, the Philadelphia CBP seized 11 counterfeit championship rings, including nine New England Patriots Super Bowl rings, one New York Yankees World Series ring, and a Houston Astros World Series ring. If the rings had been real, they would have been worth a total of $526,000.
CBP told Fox News at the time that the rings were being shipped in a $14 “box” to Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, “of all places.”
“Scammers and transnational criminal organizations take advantage of collectors and sports fans who desire to obtain a piece of sports history to line their pockets with illicit financial gains,” Casey Durst, CBP’s Baltimore field office director of field operations, told Fox.
“Customs and Border Protection will continue to work closely with our trade and consumer safety partners to intercept counterfeit consumer goods that can harm American consumers and our nation’s economy, and steal revenue and brand integrity from U.S. businesses and trademark holders,” Durst added.
Fox reported that “officers worked with the agency’s trade experts, the CBP’s Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Centers for Excellence and Expertise, along with league and team trademark holders in order to verify that the rings were fake, CPB said.”
The biggest shipment of fake sports memorabilia in recent memory came in March, when CBP officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York seized 177 fake championship rings that would have been worth a whopping $11.7 million if they had been real.
“The seized rings were infringing on the Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) trademarks,” CBP told Fox at the time.