US man pleads guilty in fake airbags case

A US man has pleaded guilty to trafficking thousands of counterfeit automotive airbags made in China on eBay, netting an estimated $1.4m in illicit proceeds from the scam.

27-year-old Igor Borodin (pictured) of Charlotte, North Carolina, placed lives at risk by selling the fake safety equipment online between February 2011 and May 2012. On testing, one of the airbags was found to be defective and did not inflate properly.

Borodin - a part owner of Krigger Auto in Charlotte - faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of up to $2m on the trafficking charge.He also faces a separate charge that he failed to properly label the fakes as hazardous material when shipping them to the US from China.

That carries penalties of up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer.

Earlier this month the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a warning to consumers after tests on counterfeit airbags posing as authentic Honda products revealed they were unsafe. 

At the time of writing, video of the NHTSA testing can be downloaded here, showing one bag that failed to inflate and another that exploded with such force that metal shrapnel was driven into the car's cabin.

"Anytime equipment that is critical to protecting drivers and passengers fails to operate properly, it is a serious safety concern," said commented US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

"We want consumers to be immediately aware of this problem and to review our safety information to see if their vehicle could be in need of inspection."

The problem mainly affects members of the public whose airbags have deployed following an accident and who have sourced replacements themselves online or from a repair shop that is not part of a new car dealership.

The NHTSA said it is currently gathering information from automakers about their systems for verifying the authenticity of replacement parts, and is working with the industry to make the driving public aware of the potential safety risk posed by counterfeit air bags.