MIAMI — A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the \u201cSex and the City\u201d TV series was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the U.S. for running a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms and New York fashion events \u2014 all in violation of U.S. wildlife laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all driven by the money,\u201d said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald, who compared Gonzalez\u2019s behavior to that of drug traffickers. \u201cIf you want to deter the conduct, you want the cocaine kingpin, not the person in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawyers for Gonzalez sought leniency for the celebrity designer, describing her journey as a divorced single mother of two children who designed belts on a home sewing machine in Cali for friends into a fashion icon who outcompeted the likes of Dior, Prada and Gucci.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe was determined to show her children and the world that women, including minority women like herself, can pursue their dreams successfully, and become financially independent,\u201d they wrote in a memo prior to Monday\u2019s hearing. \u201cAgainst all odds, this tiny but mighty woman was able to create the very first luxury, high-end fashion company from a third world country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attorneys said the 71-year-old designer has already paid dearly for her crimes. The Colombian company she built, which once employed 300 mostly female employees, declared bankruptcy and stopped operating after her arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also argued that only 1% of the merchandise she imported into the U.S. lacked proper authorization and were samples for New York Fashion week and other events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gonzalez, addressing the court before sentencing, said she deeply regretted not meticulously complying with U.S. laws and that her only wish is to hug once more her 103-year-old mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom the bottom of my heart, I apologize to the United States of America. I never intended to offend a country to which I owe immense gratitude,\u201d she said holding back tears. \u201cUnder pressure, I made poor decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors countered that Gonzalez had acquired great wealth and an opulent lifestyle, which contrasted with the couriers she recruited to smuggle her merchandise into the United States. The couriers were instructed to say that the items were gifts for their relatives if they were asked any questions by customs agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHer mission turned into producing felons,\u201d said Watts-Fitzgerald. “She tried to rewrite the law for herself, to do it her way.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the testimony of her co-defendants and former employees, ahead of important fashion events, Gonzalez, described as a micro-manager, would recruit as many as 40 passengers to carry four designer handbags each on commercial flights. In this way, prosecutors estimate that she smuggled goods that fetched as much as $2 million in the U.S. Gonzalez’s attorneys disputed the claim and said each skin cost only around $140.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of the hides were from caiman and pythons bred in captivity. Nonetheless, on some occasions she failed to obtain the proper import authorizations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, required under a widely ratified international treaty governing the trade in endangered and threatened wildlife species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2016 and 2017, she was warned by U.S. officials against sidestepping such rules, making her conduct particularly \u201cegregious,\u201d Judge Robert Scola said in handing down his sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors had been seeking a stiffer sentence of 30 to 37 months. But Scola said he was taking into account the nearly 14 months she spent in harsher conditions in a Colombian prison awaiting extradition. Gonzalez, who has been free on a bond under confinement at her daughter’s home in Miami, must surrender June 6 to begin her sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although trade in the skins used by Gonzalez was not prohibited, they came from protected wildlife that requires close monitoring under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known by its initials as CITES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salma Hayek, Britney Spears and Victoria Beckham are among celebrities who bought Gonzalez’s carefully crafted handbags. Her work also was included in a 2008 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gonzalez’s attorneys showed in court a video, from 2019, of top buyers from Bergdorf Goodman, Saks and others praising the designer\u2019s creativity, productivity and humanity \u2014 comments prosecutor Watts-Fitzgerald said the retailers likely regret today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey must be regretting they were ever put up to that and if they heard it was presented in court they would cringe,” said Watts-Fitzgerald. “They have their own brand to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n