Colombian celebrity designer Nancy Gonzalez, who sold Britney Spears and Victoria Beckham luxury bags worth $2,000, pleads guilty to smuggling handbags made of python and caiman skins into the US from South America
Luxury designer Nancy Gonzalez, who sold thousands of dollars worth of handbags to celebrities including Britney Spears, Kris Jenner and Victoria Beckham, pleaded guilty to federal charges of illegally importing python and caiman skins into the US.
Gonzalez, a 70-year-old Colombian citizen, was extradited from Colombia to the United States earlier this year after U.S. officials indicted her on charges of smuggling protected animal skins, as well as a conspiracy charge.
She was seen smiling for photographers as Interpol officers escorted her from Bogota, Colombia to Florida on a private jet.
Her attorney, Sam Rabin of Rabin & Lopez, said Monday that she pleaded guilty “directly to the judge rather than negotiate with prosecutors” because she believed she would not be treated fairly by the Justice Department, which brought the charges. .
“She believes in our courts, but not in the Department of Justice and its prosecutors, who treated her most unfairly.
“They attacked the mosquito with the equivalent of an elephant gun when a fly swatter would do.”
Nancy Gonzalez (pictured) was arrested and extradited from Colombia to the United States for smuggling illegal animal skins to make into luxury handbags
Gonzalez’s bags were frequently featured on the hit TV show “Sex and the City.”
Britney Spears (pictured right) was also a fan of Nancy Gonzalez handbags
Victoria Beckham (pictured) carried one of Gonzalez’s bags
Gonzalez sold her wares to the upper echelon of Hollywood society, with names such as Victoria Beckham, Britney Spears, Selma Hayek and Kris Jenner carrying her expensive bags.
Her bags also appeared several times in Sex and the City and were part of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2008.
She began selling her luxury products “in over 300 luxury stores around the world, including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Harrod’s, Tsum, Lane Crawford, Net-a-Porter, to name a few,” we previously read on her website. .
Its website now links to a Thai sports betting site.
The indictment against her, her company and two others, filed by Justice Department officials, alleges that from 2016 to 2019 she conspired to “secretly import into the United States from Colombia products made from protected wildlife species, in violation of the law federal government, thereby enriching themselves by selling contraband products in the United States.”
Nancy Gonzalez seen here in handcuffs in July 2022 after being arrested by authorities in Cali, Colombia for smuggling endangered crocodile and snake skin bags into the US
Gonzalez’s bags could be purchased for up to $10,000 each and were sold at high-end department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman
Gonzalez was extradited to the United States on charges of violating an international agreement on the import of endangered animal products
Gonzalez’s bags could be purchased for up to $10,000 each and were sold at high-end department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman
Gonzalez started by producing belts, and in the late 1990s, after a trip to New York, where she was encouraged by the director of a designer store to create a collection, she became interested in handbags.
The indictment lists 24 separate trips by mule and paid for by her company during which more than 200 handbags and pouches made of python and caiman were smuggled without authorization.
This was in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which lists both the python and caiman as protected species.
The indictment says the mules were instructed to inform border patrol officers that the bags were gifts for loved ones if they were questioned.
Instead, the bags were displayed in a posh showroom in New York, where they were sold to department stores and private buyers for at least $2,000 to $10,000 each.
Gonzalez reportedly had several python-skin handbags and even a soccer ball made of caiman skin when she was arrested at her home in Colombia in July 2022.
An investigation by Colombian and European authorities found that she had illegally obtained the skins of endangered animals, including snakes and deer, with the intention of turning them into exclusive fashion items.
Colombian fashion designer Nancy Gonzalez, 78, smiles for the camera during her extradition to the United States at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota
Gonzalez now faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and she faces up to 20 years on each of the smuggling charges, followed by a period of supervised release.
She also faces a fine of up to $250,000 per count or twice the intended profit for the illegal conduct, whichever is greater.
Moreover, the company she runs, Gzuniga Ltd., faces a fine of up to half a million dollars for each of the three charges, or twice the intended profit from the illegal activity.
Gonzalez and the other defendants entered guilty pleas Friday in the Southern District of Florida and are scheduled for sentencing again in February.
An additional defendant in the case has also been extradited from Colombia and is awaiting trial. The fourth defendant is not currently in custody.
