Uncle Ye, a 20 year old kingpin of China’s Replica Sneaker industry has been arrested June 30th. Before his arrest he sold more than ¥70,000,000 ($10 million), 10 pairs of shoes per second. It can be assumed that the real sum is much bigger than that.
Exclusive insider information from Chinese News
Who is Uncle Ye?
Uncle Ye, also known as Uncle Yeezy is one of China’s biggest replica sellers. At the young age of 20, Ye already built a crime empire, bringing in millions of dollars.
As the name suggests he mainly sold Yeezy sneakers, but also sold illegal counterfeits from Nike, Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and other Adidas trademarks. Uncle Yeezy started selling the items through WeChat Microstores in 2018.
His customers were mainly domestic, he did not sell directly to westerners. Through middlemen and shopping agents his pairs have made it around the whole world.
He labeled his shoes as 1:1 replicas from Putian, the world’s counterfeit sneaker capital. It’s assumed he claimed his shoes were from Putian when they were in fact from Bishan District, Chongqing because of Putians controversial claim to fame. The locations are more than 1000 miles apart.
We know that each of his pairs brought in more than ¥400 in net profits, with some example Adidas Yeezy Boosts going for ¥842, which is significantly cheaper than retail.
The Story
Uncle Ye and members of his counterfeit gang were arrested in Chongqing on June 30th. The operation known as “Blue Sword 2020” has been carefully planned by a Ningbo police task force, after dissatisfied customers reported the seller.
Ningbo police collected criminalizing evidence for over a month before striking. The bust was carried out by 20 police officers from 4 different stations.
The suspects were caught red handed as they packed and prepared counterfeit goods. Gang members were mainly family members and relatives, including the 20 year old’s own mother and father. Employees were tasked with publicity, packing, arranging purchases and shipments, warehouse logistics and more.
6 members have been arrested. The police are still putting the puzzle pieces together, because the gang has different secret warehouses around the city. 3 of such warehouses have already been located and sealed by police.
While the police confiscated the suspects phone they noticed about 10 orders coming in per second, from victims of counterfeit deception. 12 policemen have been counting the remaining stock of more than 10 tons for more than 7 days and are still not done.
Uncle Yeezy confessed to the crime. He lost real estate and and a luxury car park, that have been seized. His bank account was frozen.
Disclaimer
This article is based on official Chinese news and insiders, that brought this to our attention. There might be errors due to translation of the Chinese press releases. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty.
Yahoo Finance TW and 163.com (NetEase) reported this story. All images belong to 163.com or their rightful owner.
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