From: KOMONews.com
By Michael Harthorne
SEATTLE — The 45-year-old owner of a Kenmore beauty salon is headed to prison after investigators discovered she and her husband were the area’s biggest importers of counterfeit Vietnamese cigarettes.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Han Bui, owner of Lovely Nails and Beauty Salon, and her husband imported hundreds of thousands of contraband cigarettes from 2009 and 2011, passing them off as familiar U.S. brands and not paying taxes on them. When investigators served a search warrant on Bui’s home in 2011, they found more than 400,000 cigarettes and $115,000 in cash.
On Friday, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced Bui to 18 months in prison and $250,000 in penalties and tax assessments to be paid to the State of Washington to make up for the taxes the state lost out on from the sale of counterfeit cigarettes. Investigators think Bui cheated the state and federal government out of more than $450,000 in taxes.
In addition, Bui’s cash from selling counterfeit cigarettes and a Lexus SUV purchased with that money are being forfeited to the government.
Bui pleaded guilty to trafficking in counterfeit cigarettes in February. Her actions were discovered by law enforcement looking into illegal cigarette imports from Vietnam.
In addition to the lost tax revenue, investigators think Bui’s cigarettes were ending up in the hands of minors more frequently than usual because they were being sold outside the regular means.
