Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Las Vegas man sentenced in contact lenses scheme

A Las Vegas man who pleaded guilty for selling counterfeit and misbranded non-prescription colored contact lenses online is going to prison and was ordered to forfeit more than $1 million in cash and property, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dmitriy V. Melnik, 30, who owned and operated Candy Color Lenses, was sentenced today in a Las Vegas court to three years and 10 months in prison, officials said. He was also ordered to pay $200,000 and forfeit $1.2 million in cash, and property that was previously seized.

Melnik’s counterfeit and mislabeled products were sold to tens of thousands of U.S. customers, officials said. Many of those customers had complained to him about the quality of the lenses and had questioned their legitimacy.

Melnik would import the lenses from China and South Korea, officials said. He later admitted that many of the contact lenses were substandard and that it had been determined through testing that some potentially carried dangerous bacteria.

In a September agreement, Melnik pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and to introduce into interstate commerce misbranded devices, officials said.

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