"Criminal proceedings were initiated following formal complaints filed by intellectual property rights holders, who reported unauthorized and illegal exploitation of their registered trademarks," the ESB explained.
"Investigators established that the primary organizer established a full operational cycle for the illegal manufacturing and retail-wholesale trafficking of counterfeit garments. The suspect leased warehouse facilities in Mykolayiv, outfitted them as industrial garment workshops, and installed nearly 130 specialized industrial machines."
The workshops churned out non-genuine clothing stitched with counterfeit emblems and brand identifiers.
Finished products were stockpiled inside logistics warehouses before being dispatched in commercial freight batches to regional distributors across Ukraine. The counterfeit goods were sold via wholesale and retail operations, notably including stalls at the Seventh-Kilometer market in Odesa Oblast.
ESB detectives confiscated over 60,000 ready-to-sell counterfeit apparel items in initial investigative raids. Comprehensive forensic evaluations confirmed that the unauthorized use of registered trademarks inflicted over 11 million UAH ($246k) in financial damages on the lawful brand owners.
"During follow-up searches in Mykolayiv and Odesa Oblast, law enforcement seized an additional 360,000 units of counterfeit items," the ESB stated.
"The confiscated inventory includes athletic footwear, underwear, headwear, and diverse textile goods, including socks, bearing the trademark emblems of Reebok, Nike, New Balance, Adidas, Puma, Salomon, Gucci, Versace, Lacoste, Armani, Hugo Boss, Levi’s, Columbia, Tommy Hilfiger, Off-White, Calvin Klein, and others."
Detectives additionally seized 28 specialized industrial machines used in manufacturing.
Prior shadow economy busts
Economic Security Bureau earlier shut down two industrial-scale underground cigarette manufacturing plants located in Lviv and Kharkiv oblasts. Both illegal operations possessed sufficient manufacturing capacity to produce over 130,000 illicit cigarette packs per day.