.18 million is fake?
According to AFP, a criminal gang of 10 people was tried in Paris for abuse of trust, possession and sale of counterfeit and shoddy products, seven of whom were Hermes employees (of course not now).
According to court documents, the gang used scraps and other parts to produce dozens of counterfeit Hermes handbags from 2013 to 2014. Each bag was sold at a price of about 23,000 euros (about 182,000 yuan) to 32,000 euros (about 254,000 yuan), making a total profit of more than 2 million euros (about 15.85 million yuan), mainly sold to Asia, especially Hong Kong, China.
Hermes senior executives and employees faked
Prosecutor told the court that this fake network first originated from three people in the gang, one of whom was a senior executive of Hermes Italian subsidiary, responsible for importing the rare leather needed to make bags from the Lombardy region of Italy. Another person was a leather cutter at Hermes. When he was working, he took away some confidential documents and the base of the platinum bag from Hermes.
Another leader is a 52-year-old woman from Cambodia , who has lived in France since 1980. Her mission is to resell fake bags with real platinum bags to customers at a price increase. She told investigators that customers knew they were buying fakes.
The remaining 7 members are 5 other Hermes employees, one of whom provides jewelry for making fake bags and four are leather craftsmen. It is understood that they stole leather edge materials, tools, zippers, and even defective products from Hermes, split them and used them to make fake bags.
(Pictures are from the Internet)
A 45-year-old man said that he was only 18 years old when he first worked for Hermes. had devoted his entire 27 years of working years to Hermes, but he was "not safe in his later years." When the police searched his home, they found leather, scrolls, documents, etc. that produced these banned handbags, as well as 18,700 euros in cash.
On the last day of the trial, the prosecutor demanded that the three gang leaders be sentenced to a maximum of 4 years in prison, a fine of 100,000 to 200,000 euros, and other gang members be probated and fined. A gang leader moved to Vietnam after being charged and the court has issued an arrest warrant.
It is understood that the court will make a verdict on this case on September 24
Netizen: Is this a real package or a fake package?
#The topic of former Hermes employee stealing materials and making fake bags to sell Asian customers# once became a hot search on Weibo.
Although the entire fake team may face jail time, many netizens do not think that the bags they make are fake ones. Many netizens said that the original craftsmen and raw leather materials are real...
Not only do domestic netizens think so, but foreign netizens also said that this is the real Hermes bag...
Twitter netizen @OteghaUwagba said: "If these bags were made by (former) Hermes employees and used side materials stolen from Hermes factory, to me, this is the real Hermes bag!"
Twitter netizen @Isofd said that this case is more like theft of intellectual property rights. As for whether the bags made by former Hermes employees with Hermes hardware and leather are fake bags, it depends on their opinion.
Hermes distribution policy encourages the proliferation of fake goods?
This is not the first time Hermes has encountered a "insider" fraud.
As early as 2012, a Hermes fraud case involving a total amount of 140 million yuan caused a sensation in the world. At that time, a total of 12 criminal suspects were arrested in Paris and Lyon, including two Hermes employees who had been fired.
In 2010, there were also reports that 3 suspects in the Hermes fraud case were former employees of Hermes.
In the eyes of many high-end customers, Hermes' distribution policy implemented in Asia is one of the reasons why Hermes' "original order" is repeatedly banned.
In Hermes store in China, if you want to buy a Hermes bag, you not only need to book it, but you can wait at least 1-2 years, but you will often encounter unspoken rules for distribution.
The common distribution ratio ranges from 1:1.1 to 1:1.3.In other words, if you want to buy a Hermes bag worth 100,000 yuan, you must have at least 110,000 yuan Hermes goods, including belts, scarves and other accessories.
In order to avoid excessive distribution, many consumers choose overseas purchasing agents, which has also made many criminals feel illegal.
In the past five years, Hermes Accessories' revenue ratio has been above 40%. According to Wande data, the financial report for the first half of 2019 showed that Hermes' accessories revenue accounted for about 50%.
Source: China Fund News
