A federal judge has sentenced a 45-year-old woman from Florida, US, to 18 months in prison for selling counterfeit MAC cosmetics (Estée Lauder) to consumers and wholesalers.

Tina Oleszczuk ordered fake MAC products in bulk from China, then sold them from her home via her website Cozmetic Delights LLC and eBay for almost two years, raking in over US$1 million. Oleszczuk has been ordered to pay a total of US$961,744.75 to MAC.

A spokesperson from MAC Cosmetics released the following statement. “We would like to explain that our products are distributed for sale only at our authorized retail store accounts (including certain direct TV sales), free-standing stores, and e-commerce sites. Products sold to our authorized accounts are genuine MAC. If a retailer is not one of our accounts, we have no control over the merchandise that they sell. Further, we have no way of knowing how they obtained our products. Therefore, we are unable to assume responsibility for unauthorized representation of our product.”