A Ferndale, Washington warehouse indicted over 467 counterfeit listings
A federal grand jury indicted Kara Suneva Allen, 42, of Ferndale, Washington, in 2022, alleging she ran Keepin Up With Kara LLC, a business selling counterfeit designer goods from a Ferndale warehouse and an associated website. Prosecutors said the site advertised 467 items under 16 brands including Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel, and that an undercover agent bought a counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbag for $110 against a $1,690 authentic retail price.
- Year
- 2022
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Charged (an allegation, not a conviction)
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Counterfeit goods scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-23
The facts, as recorded
- Kara Suneva Allen, 42, of Ferndale, Washington, is alleged to have operated Keepin Up With Kara LLC from a warehouse space in Ferndale.
- As of March 2022, a website associated with the business allegedly advertised 467 different items appearing to be made by Adidas, Burberry, Cartier, Chanel, Christian Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, MCM, Nike, Prada, Saint Laurent, Tiffany & Co., Tory Burch and UGG.
- An undercover agent allegedly bought a Louis Vuitton-branded handbag through the website for $110; the suggested retail price for the authentic handbag is $1,690, and a Louis Vuitton representative confirmed the purchased item was counterfeit.
- Three shipments from China and Hong Kong were allegedly seized in Oakland, California in August and September 2021; Allen was notified but never requested their release. About 46 further shipments from China and Hong Kong allegedly went to the Ferndale warehouse between September 2021 and March 2022.
- On May 2, 2022, agents executed search and seizure warrants at the Ferndale warehouse, Allen's car and her home, seizing large quantities of alleged counterfeit goods.
- A federal grand jury charged Allen with multiple counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods; conviction on the charges carries a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $2,000,000 fine.
- The investigation involved Homeland Security Investigations, US Customs and Border Protection, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, the US Postal Inspection Service, the Ferndale Police Department and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.
Why this case matters
This is the largest-scale counterfeit storefront on this page by advertised volume, 467 listed items across 16 brands, and it documents exactly how investigators built the case: years of shipping records from China and Hong Kong, an unclaimed customs seizure the seller never contested, and a controlled undercover purchase that priced the fraud at roughly 15 cents on the dollar.
The unclaimed shipments
Three shipments seized in Oakland in 2021 were never contested by Allen, even after she was notified. Investigators treated the decision not to fight the seizure, followed by dozens more shipments of the same goods continuing to arrive at her warehouse, as evidence she knew exactly what was being shipped.
What the undercover purchase proved
A $110 purchase price against a $1,690 authentic retail price is not a marginal discount; it is roughly a 93% markdown, the kind of gap that exists only because nothing about the supply chain resembles an authorised one.
The caveat
Everything above is drawn from a grand jury indictment and a law enforcement account of the charges filed in 2022. These are allegations, not proven facts: Allen is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, and this page’s source does not report a trial outcome, plea, or sentence.
Sources
- Ferndale woman charged with selling fake designer items as genuine goods. KIRO 7 News. Accessed 2026-10-23. Supports: Allen's name, age, hometown, the LLC name, the 467 items and 16 brands, the undercover purchase and price comparison, the shipment counts and dates, the May 2022 search warrants, the grand jury charges and maximum penalty, and the investigating agencies.