Her sentencing Monday is the latest chapter in a long-running authorized saga involving the movie star designer, whose purses appeared in “Sex and the City,” and have been worn by celebrities comparable to Britney Spears, Salma Hayek and Victoria Beckham.
According to prosecutors, the baggage have been transported from Gonzalez’s native Colombia to the United States by couriers on business flights, after which ferried to Gonzalez’s showroom in New York to be proven and offered to high-end purchasers, together with round occasions comparable to New York Fashion Week.
Prosecutors mentioned the scheme continued even after Gonzalez, 71, obtained warnings from U.S. authorities in 2016 and 2017.
Gonzalez was arrested in Colombia in July 2022, and served over a 12 months in jail there whereas awaiting extradition to the United States. She pleaded responsible in November 2023 to at least one depend of conspiracy and two counts of smuggling. She will serve a shorter sentence in jail within the United States due to the time she served in Colombia.
In an e-mail to The Washington Post, Sam Rabin, an lawyer for Gonzalez, accused prosecutors of unfairly concentrating on his consumer.
“While most major purse designers rush samples to fashion shows, sometimes without the proper paperwork, only she was chosen to be prosecuted by the department of justice,” Rabin wrote, arguing that “her case should had been handled administratively instead of by arrest and prosecution.”
Prosecutors mentioned that between February 2016 and April 2019, Gonzalez and her associates recruited couriers — together with pals, kin and workers of Gonzalez’s firm — to fly from Colombia to the United States with purses made with caiman or python pores and skin — and instructed the couriers to assert to U.S. authorities if questioned that the baggage have been meant as presents for pals.
The Justice Department mentioned the caiman and python species used to make the baggage have been protected underneath the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a world treaty signed by the United States and Colombia.
Gonzalez’s attorneys accepted that the designer shipped some merchandise with out correct permits, however argued that solely “a very small percentage” was imported illegally, and mentioned these merchandise have been sometimes shipped underneath tight deadlines for occasions that have been “essential to the survival of her business.”
Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of Florida, mentioned in a information launch saying Gonzalez’s sentencing, “The press of business, production deadlines or other economic factors are not justification for anyone to knowingly flout the system and attempt to write their own exceptions to wildlife trafficking laws.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald argued that Gonzalez’s actions have been “driven by the money,” including that the designer “tried to rewrite the law for herself, to do it her way,” in keeping with the Associated Press.
Before she was sentenced, a visibly emotional Gonzalez apologized to the courtroom for her actions, the AP reported. “From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to the United States of America. I never intended to offend a country to which I owe immense gratitude,” she mentioned. “Under pressure, I made poor decisions.”
In a memo written earlier than her sentencing listening to, Gonzalez’s attorneys painted an image of the designer’s unlikely rise to business success and tragic private circumstances, and mentioned she was a “universally well-respected, hardworking, and charitable” person who made errors.
According to the memo, Gonzalez misplaced her father when she was 9 years old and was raised by her mom. Gonzalez launched her business within the Nineteen Eighties, after what her attorneys described as a “difficult and heartbreaking divorce from the father of her children.” She began by promoting belts that she made at home together with her stitching machine to family and friends. This enterprise was profitable, and she or he opened a retailer in Cali, Colombia. In 1998, she offered her first assortment within the United States, on the luxurious division retailer Bergdorf Goodman.
As Gonzalez’s model recognition grew, so did her firm: According to her attorneys, at one time earlier than the pandemic, she employed greater than 300 individuals in Colombia.
In March 2017, Gonzalez misplaced her son to suicide. Her attorneys argued of their memo that her son’s dying was related to Gonzalez’s “state of mind” throughout a part of the interval that U.S. authorities say she led the prison import conspiracy.
In federal courtroom on Monday, Judge Robert Scola sentenced Gonzalez to a 12 months and a half in jail, adopted by three years of supervised launch. He put her firm, Gzuniga, on a three-year probation and banned it from partaking in wildlife merchandise commerce for 3 years. Gonzalez’s important affiliate, Mauricio Giraldo, was sentenced to about 22 months in jail, and a 3rd affiliate has but to be sentenced.
In handing down his sentence, Judge Scola mentioned it was particularly “egregious” that Gonzalez continued to illegally import her luggage for years after receiving warnings from authorities, in keeping with the AP. Her sentence was decrease than what prosecutors initially sought. Rabin in his e-mail mentioned Gonzalez doesn’t intend to attraction.
