Inver Grove Heights Man Gets 3 Years For Counterfeit Jersey Business

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A 45-year-old Inver Grove Heights man has been sentenced to three years in prison for conspiring to traffic counterfeit sports jerseys imported from China, the United States Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

Brian Todd Gore, 46, will spend 37 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in December 2014 to dealing counterfeit Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League and National Collegiate Athletic Association jerseys.

Gore pleaded guilty to ordering the fake jerseys from suppliers in China between November 2009 and September 2012 and selling them to buyers in Minnesota and elsewhere. Gore was the primary supplier of counterfeit jerseys to AME Sports in Roseville.

Gore also pleaded guilty to traveling to the 2010 NFL Super Bowl to sell counterfeit NFL jerseys. Police seized 383 counterfeit NFL jerseys from him.

Police say the total retail value of Gore's counterfeit jerseys was at least $320,000.

"Trafficking in counterfeit goods is not a victimless crime," Special Agent in Charge J. Michael Netherland of Homeland Security Investigations in St. Paul said last year. "Buying these items may appear at first to be a bargain, but when we take into account how the money it generates is often tied to organized crime or worse, we see that this 'victimless crime' harms us all in the long run."