ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A husband and wife from New Mexico pleaded guilty in North Carolina federal court to smuggling and selling counterfeit Native American jewelry.
Kiem Thanh Huynh, 60, and My Ngoc Truong, 61, smuggled counterfeit Native American jewelry made in Vietnam and sold it to customers in the United States as authentic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.
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The couple owns MT Jewelry, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and falsely claimed that their jewelry was made by Navajo artists at their shop. The feds said Huynh and Truong traveled to trade shows throughout the country, including in western North Carolina, where they sold their merchandise as authentic Native American jewelry.
Huynh and Truong, on Monday, pleaded guilty to misrepresentation of Indian goods in an amount greater than $1,000, in violation of the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act, and smuggling…