Tuesday 11 October 2022 11:25 PM Long Island clothes store owner caught with $40m of fake designer gear and ... trends now
A Long Island boutique owner ran a $40 million counterfeiting scam which saw her iron Gucci, Chanel and Prada and other designer labels onto cheaper items of clothing - then pass them off as the real deal, prosecutors say.
Lindsay Castelli Bullock, who owns Linny's Boutique in Plainview, was arrested Tuesday, with the 31 year-old now facing second-degree counterfeiting charges.
The mom-of-four's store was raided October 4.
There, Nassau County detectives are said to have found 22 printing press machines used to create the fake labels, which were heat-sealed on garments with an iron.
Nearby were knockoff items of clothing and jewels Bullock is said to have falsely passed-off as being genuine Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Dior, Ugg, and Louis Vuitton.
'They would take a hat, a $3 hat or a 50 cent item on the side here, and they would seal it ontothe hat, and sell it for $300,' Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder told Newsbreak.
Cops said the combined value of the counterfeit clothing would have been $40 million, had Bullock managed to convince her customers that it genuine, and sell it.
In addition to her sparse gray retail store, Bullock also allegedly ran the scheme through a private Facebook group called Shop Linnys, which had 5,000 members.
Once approved to join, prospective shoppers were bombarded with statuses showing Bullock herself modeling what she claimed to be designer gear, while encouraging them to snap it up.
But Bullock's antics also caught the attention of cops, who began probing her business in April 2021.
They called in United States Postal Inspectors to help with the probe, which likely involved packages being seized so their contents then evaluated to see if they were genuine.
Having decided Bullock was a scammer, detectives mounted the raid.
Lindsay Bullock was arrested on Friday in a $40M counterfeit operation in Long Island scheme where she 'sold fake Gucci, Chanel, Prada and other high-end labels through her boutique'
On December 16, 2020 Bullock posts information about her grand opening that garnered 150 comments
The mother of four from Smithtown, New York, now faces a charge of trademark counterfeiting in the second degree. Bullock was released on a desk appearance ticket and due back in court on November 2 at First District Court in Hempstead
Bullock is pictured sitting in what appears to be her store room, with cops saying the clothing she sold was all counterfeit
On September 22 Bullock posted a photo of herself in ripped denim light blue-washed jeans and a grey-blue button oversized blouse sharing her latest update:
'Sit back, relax and shop with me while sippin' a glass of wine,' she wrote.
'The new LIVE schedule is set to start and starts 9/25!' Here's the
