Counterfeit Condoms and a New Arrangement

New Yorkers long ago stopped being fooled by the luxury knockoffs peddled from sidewalk card tables at prices too good to be true. Not that they always keep their wallet in check — as a close inspection of many a supposedly pedigreed Louis Vuitton handbag might reveal, if the penny-pinching owner would allow it.

There are some counterfeit goods, though, where the close-enough counterfeit is far from an adequate substitution for the confidence of a brand-name product. Take a specific, alarming example: Trojan condoms.

Federal officials say that a counterfeit smuggling ring, ZX Trading, made millions selling imported Chinese knockoffs, including bags, clothes and sunglasses that bear brand names including Disney, Nike and North Face. But perhaps the most troubling discovery was of a stash of more than half a million fake Trojan brand condoms, which did not have spermicide as advertised and later failed water leakage tests.

A prosecutor for the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn called the fake condoms “a danger to the public.” A lawyer for Church & Dwight, which owns Trojan, warned that the condoms “may pose potential safety risks to consumers and users.”

Two siblings were scheduled to be sentenced on Friday in Brooklyn for their role in running the counterfeit-smuggling ring that federal officials say was responsible for importing the bogus condoms. The hearing was postponed because of a debate about the level of the siblings’ involvement in the condom situation.

The two, Lin F. Hu and Jian Lin Hu, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods last year, though they specifically did not admit to importing the condoms. A recent court filing on behalf of the siblings reiterated the denial, adding, “The mere fact that a product has a counterfeit brand name does not mean that it is dangerous.”

Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 46 to 57 months in prison.

Counterfeit condoms have become a booming business in China in recent years. According to a report in The Times of London last year, the Chinese authorities reported that they had raided a workshop in Hunan Province where more than two million condoms had been made in unsterile conditions, lubricated with vegetable oil and falsely labeled with brand names like Durex and Rough Rider. – A. G. Sulzbergerhe

The New York Times