Debra Wong Yang
United States Attorney
Central District of California
United States Courthouse
312 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
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August 29, 2006
Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947
Los Angeles, CA - Hsieh I Chen Liu, 53, of Diamond Bar, California, pleaded guilty yesterday afternoon to a federal charge of attempting to sell electrical extension cords bearing a counterfeit "UL" label.
Liu pleaded guilty to a felony count of attempted trafficking in counterfeit goods in United States District Court in Los Angeles. In court, Liu admitted that she knowingly attempted to sell extension cords which purported to be certified as "safe" by Underwriters Laboratories (or "UL"), but which Liu knew were not UL-safe. More specifically, Liu admitted that she sold counterfeit cords to undercover federal agents on September 1, 2005. These cords had been tested by UL and were found to be unsafe. On September 22, 2005, Liu – who knew that the UL label was counterfeit – was again prepared to sell the same type of counterfeit UL cords to undercover agents, but backed out of the deal at the last minute. When agents executed a federal search warrant that day at the business Liu owned and operated, they seized more than $60,000 in electrical products with counterfeit UL labels.
Liu now faces up to 10 years in federal custody and a fine of $2,000,000. She is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge A. Howard Matz on January 8, 2007.
This case was investigated by the Long Beach Office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
Release No. 06-112
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