FRESNO, Calif. — A brazen scheme to import used airbags from Poland and sell them as new across the US has been exposed, with a federal grand jury handing down an indictment against a 41-year-old Wolow, Poland native and his 48-year-old accomplice in Florida.
Pawel Pankow, 41, and Magdalena Pankow, 48, have been charged with conspiracy to smuggle goods into the US by means of false statements and to commit wire and mail fraud, as well as four separate counts of mail fraud. Magdalena Pankow was arrested over the weekend in Flagler County, Florida, after the indictment issued last Thursday.
According to court documents, Pawel Pankow began shipping airbags into the US as far back as 2008 and sold thousands of them through online sales, mostly through eBay. Pankow listed the items as brand new condition and genuine original equipment parts, despite them being used, counterfeit, assembled from used components, and/or not authorized for sale in the US.
The scheme was a lucrative one, with Pawel Pankow shipping airbags from Europe and China to Magdalena Pankow in Florida, often mislabeling the shipments as products other than airbags. Magdalena Pankow then fulfilled orders from locations in Florida by sending them through the US Postal Service. Federal regulations classify airbags as hazardous material, and they cannot be shipped by air or ground through the US Postal Service.
This case is the result of a joint investigation by the FBI offices in Fresno, California, and Jacksonville, Florida, with assistance from the Intellectual Property Rights Center in Arlington, Virginia, US Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gappa is prosecuting the case.
Magdalena Pankow is scheduled to make her initial appearance before a US magistrate judge in Jacksonville, Florida. Pawel Pankow has not yet been arrested or appeared in court on the case. If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison on each fraud count and five years in prison on the conspiracy count. Each charge has a maximum potential fine of $250,000 and a three-year term of supervised release.
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Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime|Organized Crime|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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