Pennsylvania Man Sentenced to Five Years of Probation for 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, 26, of York, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge George Z. Singal to five years of probation for conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods. He was also ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution.  Kurnik pled guilty to the offense on October 22, 2014.

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.

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