Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty to Trafficking in Counterfeit Goods

Contact: Craig M. Wolff
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that
Michael Kurnik, 25, of York, Pennsylvania, pled guilty today in U.S. District Court to
conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods.

According to court records, Kurnik regularly purchased what purported to be OtterBox
cell phone cases from suppliers in China and resold them to individuals in the United States.
These individuals in turn often sold the cases on eBay and other online sites. One of the resellers,
who lived in Maine, told Kurnik in May 2013 that he had been contacted by OtterBox and told
that he was going to be sued for selling counterfeit cases on eBay.

Despite being told of the OtterBox lawsuit, Kurnik continued to buy the phone cases
from China and resell them in the United States. In December 2013, he sent a shipment of
counterfeit cases to the reseller in Maine, who by that point was cooperating with law
enforcement. A search warrant was executed at a warehouse in Manchester, Pennsylvania used
by Kurnik and agents seized about 6,700 counterfeit OtterBox cases. Kurnik admitted in an
interview that by May 2013 he knew the cases he was selling were counterfeit, but he continued
buying cases from China to resell in the United States until December 2013.

Kurnik faces up to 10 years in prison and a $2,000,000 fine. He will be sentenced after
the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s
Homeland Security Investigations.