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SALT LAKE CITY — Criminal charges have been filed against a man who prosecutors say was engaged in a "criminal enterprise" by selling counterfeit merchandise online.
Marcelo Christian Veizaga, 28, allegedly marketed and sold counterfeit products on KSL.com that included Beats by Dre headphones, Instyler hair styling devices, and Beachbody exercise DVDs, according to charging documents.
He was charged after a months-long investigation by the SECURE Strike Force of the Utah Attorney General's Office's that included detectives making undercover purchases.
Agents made six undercover purchases through the website.
"In each instance, an agent met with the defendant in a parking lot and purchased an item which the defendant produced from the trunk of his car," the charges state.
Officers said they followed the defendant and learned he had a pattern that started most days at a storage facility in Salt Lake County followed by trips to various parking lots along the Wasatch Front. On March 10, investigators served a search warrant on the storage unit.
"Inside the storage unit, the strike force located a large number of boxes containing items similar to those obtained through controlled purchases. Based upon the prices advertised on the KSL website, the aggregate amount that the defendant is seeking for the counterfeit items in the storage unit is $1,500 or more. In addition, more than 100 unauthorized copies of DVDs containing Beachbody content were located," the charges state.
Veizaga also advertised an injectable substance known as "Human Chorionic Gonadotropin," according to prosecutors, a product only available with a prescription by a doctor from a licensed pharmacist.
Veizaga, 28, was charged late last week in 3rd District Court with engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony; failure to disclose the origin of a recording, a third-degree felony; criminal simulation, a third-degree felony; communications fraud, a third-degree felony; and distributing prescription drugs without a license, a third-degree felony.
