Azan fined for fakes - Bashco head found guilty of importing counterfeit shoes By Omar Anderson, Staff Reporter THE TAX Court yesterday fined Bashco Trading Company Limited and its managing director, Gassan Azan, $21 million after they were found guilty of knowingly importing and having in their possession more than 30,000 pairs of counterfeit sneakers in 1999. Another accused, Juan Macha-do, was found not guilty of all the charges under section 210 of the Customs Act. Following complaints from the Nike, Caterpillars and Adidas companies in the US, the Revenue Protection Department (RPD) launched investigations and charged Mr. Azan, Bashco, and Mr. Machado with two counts of importing prohibited goods, and three counts of knowingly harbouring prohibited goods. Bashco was formerly named Costco but the name was changed more than a year ago. The goods being referred to in court documents were 30,986 pairs of sneakers which Resident Magistrate Owen Parkin ordered forfeited yesterday at the Tax Court at the Corporate Area RM Court at Sutton Street. The Magistrate each fined Mr. Azan and his company $10,824,048 but lawyers representing both have filed verbal notice of appeal. RPD Commissioner Mike Surridge told The Gleaner yesterday that the genuine local distributors of these brand name shoes were operating at a loss as soon as the counterfeit shoes hit the streets. "We had complaints from the manufacturers abroad. Each of them have local distributors and the prices of these shoes were so much less than the prices of the genuine shoes sold through the distributors," he said. He said the sneakers were identified as "just shoes" when they were being brought into the island, "but I don't think they were identified as brand name shoes". Representing the prosecution were Crown Counsel David Frazer of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Karene Stanley of the law firm Chancellor & Company, and the RPD's Annmarie Feurtado-Richards. Attorney-at-law Dr. Lloyd Barnett, Q.C., represented Mr. Azan and his company while attorney Priya Levers represented Mr. Machado.
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