Topline
A handbag designer who enjoyed a roster of celebrity clients like Britney Spears and Victoria Beckham in the early 2000s was sentenced to 18 months in prison after she pleaded guilty to smuggling leather from crocodile and pythons that were bred in captivity into the United States, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Key Facts
Nancy Gonzalez, whose fashion brand is famous for its crocodile handbags designed in bright colors, pleaded guilty in Miami federal court last year to two counts of smuggling and one count of conspiracy (none of her clients have been accused of any wrongdoing).
Prosecutors accused the designer of carrying and having couriers carry handbags from Colombia to the U.S. without first obtaining the import authorizations needed to trade in endangered and threatened wildlife species.
The types of skins Gonzalez was accused of smuggling, python and a breed of crocodile called caiman, are protected by the rules of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which Gonzalez did not follow when importing the leather according to the Department of Justice.
Prosecutors estimated that Gonzalez smuggled merchandise using dozens of couriers before she was arrested in Colombia and extradited to the U.S., the AP reported (her handbags had an average retail value of more than $2,000 each, according to the DOJ).
Gonzalez already served 14 months in a Colombian prison for the crime, which will come off of her U.S. prison time, her attorney, Sam Rabin, told Forbes.
Rabin added Gonzalez’s crime “did not merit the filing of a criminal case” and “put a successful woman and her enterprise out of business.”
Crucial Quote
“It’s all driven by the money,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald reportedly said. “If you want to deter the conduct, you want the cocaine kingpin, not the person in the field.”
Big Number
1%. Rabin told Women’s Wear Daily last year less than 1% of Gonzalez’s handbags were imported without documentation.
Key Background
Gonzalez, who was born in Colombia, debuted her first collection of only eight pieces at Bergdorf Goodman in 1998. Buyers of some of the nation’s most exclusive department stores wrote in a memo to the court that Gonzalez was a “tiny but mighty woman” who was “able to create the very first luxury, high-end fashion company from a third world country.” Gonzalez made her name with crocodile designs in hot pink, neon green and bright blue and later expanded into other materials like lizards and linen, her general manager told Paper City. In the early 2000s, her bags were worn by starlets like Britney Spears, Victoria Beckham, Eva Longoria, Vanessa Hudgens and Hayden Panettiere. They were also featured on screen in the “Sex and the City” movies and “The Devil Wears Prada” film. Top department stores like Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Harrod’s sold Gonzalez’s pieces. Gonzalez bags were initially sold for thousands of dollars and consignment outlets like Consigned Designs and the Real Real have used items listed for between $250 and $1,100.
Kristin Davis, right, with a Nancy Gonzales handbag filming on location for “Sex And The City 2” on … [+]
Victoria Justice with a Nancy Gonzales handbag at the Nickelodeon’s 26th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards … [+]
