Utah couple accused of making nearly $1.5 million off counterfeit DVD sales
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Pat Reavy, KSL.com
DRAPER, Utah (KSL.com) — A couple accused of making nearly $1.5 million selling counterfeit DVDs is facing felony criminal charges.
Ryan Nathan McClain, 47, and Tiffany Mercer McClain, 41, were each charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, communications fraud and money laundering, second-degree felonies. Ryan McClain received an additional charge of obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony.
According to charging documents, the Utah Attorney General’s Office began investigating the company Red Rock Restore, which was registered to McClain, for allegedly selling counterfeit DVDs on eBay under the username “aspenwolfmnt.”
“EBay investigators provided me with lifetime sales data for all the eBay accounts associated with (McClain), which included over 100,000 sales collectively. The total revenue for all the accounts at the time of analysis totaled approximately $1,484,952.45 in sales,” the investigator wrote in charging documents.
In December, investigators placed online orders from aspenwolfmnt for the movies “Ford vs. Ferrari” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” After receiving the DVDs, law enforcers sent them to the Content Protection Operations department of the Motion Picture Association. Both discs were determined to be counterfeit, the charges state.
After learning that Tiffany McClain was also shipping packages of counterfeit DVDs, investigators served search warrants on the couple’s bank accounts, according to the charges.
“These accounts showed numerous expenses being paid from the accounts for the DVD sales operation, including shipping, packaging and purchasing of covers,” the charges state.
On Aug. 1, investigators served a search warrant on the couple’s Draper home and seized more than 2,800 prepackaged DVDs, as well as invoices from Chinese distributors, according to the charges.
“(Ryan McClain) claimed he did not know for sure but acknowledged at least a 50/50 chance that the DVDs he was selling were counterfeit. (He) described his sellers as ‘probably from China’ based on their broken English in email correspondence,” charging documents state.
Officials from the Motion Picture Association told investigators that “China is the only source for counterfeit DVDs.”
Of the 46 DVDs sent to the Motion Picture Association for review, that were seized from the McClains, 45 were determined to be counterfeit and one was cracked and unable to be tested, the charges state.