US makes arrest in fake airbag case

US agents have arrested a man in relation to the alleged sale of more than 900 fake airbags on eBay.

The man, Vitaliy Yaremkiv, is accused of importing fake Honda, Subaru and Toyota airbags for sale on eBay. Agents think the 964 airbags sold on the auction site primarily went to independent garages that believed they were buying genuine products. The sales reportedly earned $137,000.

If convicted, Yaremkiv faces up to ten years in prison as authorities seek to stop the rise of what they see as particularly dangerous fakes. "Counterfeit air bags are untested, unregulated, and extremely unsafe," Brad Bench, a special Homeland Security agent in Seattle, said.

In February 2012 a Chinese citizen was sentenced to a little more than three years in jail for the trafficking of fake airbags. Eight months later, another man pleaded guilty to trafficking thousands of counterfeit airbags into the U.S. from China.


Airbag image courtesy of Shutterstock