Nancy Gonzalez, a celebrity handbag designer known for her work on The Devil Wears Prada and Sex and the City, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to smuggling reptile skins into the U.S.
Gonzalez, 70, was given credit for time served, a supervised release of three years and ordered to pay a special assessment in connection with the illegal importing of caiman and python skins from Colombia from February 2016 to April 2019, according to federal prosecutors.
Her luxury handbag company, Gzuniga Ltd., was ordered to forfeit all handbags and other previously seized product, banned for three years from any activities involving commercial trade in wildlife and sentenced to serve three years of probation.
"The caiman and python species are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which both the United States and Colombia are signatories," prosecutors said.
"The United States signed on to CITES in an effort to help protect threatened and endangered species here and abroad from trafficking," Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division stated. "We will not tolerate illegal smuggling. We appreciate the efforts of our many federal and international partners who have helped with the investigation, extradition and prosecution of this case."
Gonzalez's co-conspirator, Mauricio Giraldo, was sentenced to a year of supervised release after serving 22 months incarcerated in the U.S. and Columbia. He must also pay a fine.
Co-conspirator, John Camilo Aguilar Jaramillo will be sentenced in June, according to prosecutors.
The conspirators used friends, relatives and employees to smuggle hundreds of purses into the U.S. by wearing them or putting them in their luggages. The bags were subsequently sold from Gonzalez's New York City showroom.
