RALEIGH, N.C. — The Department of Justice announced Thursday that a North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) engineer pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit car steering wheel airbags in the Raleigh area.
A news release said 31-year-old Mateen Mohammad Alinaghian imported about 2,500 counterfeit airbags, selling them to people around Raleigh online by using Facebook Marketplace. He did so between May 2022 and April 2024.
Prosecutors said Alinaghian – who is reportedly still an engineer at NCDOT as of publication – imported the fake airbags from the United Kingdom. They bore counterfeit markings, suggesting they were from Honda, Chevrolet, General Motors (GM) and Toyota. He used two different seller profiles to advertise and sell the fakes…