U.S. arrests 6 for fake hip-hop clothes from China

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Six people were arrested on Wednesday for importing nearly $20 million worth of counterfeit designer urban street wear and hip-hop style clothing into the United States from China, federal authorities said.

The six were arrested in New Jersey, California and New York, and charged with conspiring to import clothing with fake labels like "RocaWear," "Coogi" and "Evisu" and then laundering the proceeds between 2003 and 2007, U.S. prosecutors said.

Those arrested included a man based in China who manufactured and imported the clothing and a freight forwarder in Los Angeles, who transported the clothing to New York where it was sold to wholesale and retail customers.

FBI confidential informants bought some of the fake clothing at cheap prices at stores in New York and intercepted telephone calls by some of the defendants conducted in Arabic and e-mails detailing the imports, according to the complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Michelle Nichols and Eric Walsh)