Elk Grove man charged with counterfeiting sports logos
The owner of an Elk Grove Village retail shop has been charged with selling unlicensed merchandise containing the logos of the Chicago Blackhawks and other professional sports teams.
Jeff Huang, 61, of Mount Prospect was charged with five counts of unauthorized use of a trademark, a non-probationable class 1 felony, and he faces a minimum of four years in prison if convicted, said Cook County assistant state's attorney Maureen McGee. Huang was placed on an electronic monitor during a hearing Wednesday afternoon in Rolling Meadows.
On Wednesday, sheriff's police and Department of Homeland Security agents executed a search warrant at Huang's business, Max International Trading Corp., located in the 1500 block of South Elmhurst Road.
They recovered 131,778 counterfeit items, most of them lamps containing glass insets with logos from professional hockey, baseball, basketball and football teams, as well as college teams, McGee said.
The items have an estimated retail value of $549,000, she said.
Huang told police he copied the logos off the Internet and sent them to his manufacturer in China, McGee said.
The charges arose from a joint investigation between the Cook County Sheriff's Police and agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security and was prompted by a report from the National Hockey League about the sale of unauthorized merchandise.
Huang next appears in court on July 2.