LONG ISLAND, NY — Today, the Nassau County District Attorney's office concluded a years-long effort to donate nearly 100,000 counterfeit jackets to dozens of charities across the area. The jackets were all seized during investigations in Nassau County. Hundreds of the jackets will now go to humanitarian relief work in Ukraine.

Between 2015 and 2017, law enforcement officers seized the jackets in three investigations into warehouses in Hicksville, Westbury and Old Bethpage. The jackets were counterfeit designer pieces, and had a street value of more than $3 million at the time.

Working with multiple groups, including the companies the designs were stolen from, the DA's office managed to donate the jackets to more than 160 nonprofits, charties and volunteer groups for people in need.

Today, the final 1,000 jackets were distributed to charities, including 600 jackets that have been donated to St. Finbar Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn, which will be sent to Ukraine as part of humanitarian relief efforts in the region.

“After three seizures netted us nearly 100,000 counterfeit jackets, we were faced with a tough choice: send them to the incinerator to be destroyed like most counterfeit goods, or get creative, and find a way to put these jackets into the hands of people who needed them most,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “With the help of our extraordinary partners, the jackets were given new life and donated to charities across Long Island and New York. Now, at the end of this journey with one final donation, we are glad to be able to provide some small measure of relief to the people of Ukraine.”

Before 2015, counterfeit clothing items were destroyed. But a change to the law that year allowed for counterfeit goods to be donated to charity, following safety testing and the permission of the victim company.

In 2015, Nassau police and DA investigators, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations seized more than 50,000 counterfeit jackets in a Hicksville warehouse, with a street value at the time of more than $2 million. Two additional seizures, in Westbury and Old Bethpage in 2016 and 2017, respectively, brought the total number of seized counterfeit jackets to 98,000.

State law requires not-for-profit recipients of donated counterfeit clothing to inspect or pay for inspection of the clothing to ensure it is safe. The Hicksville defendant was ordered, as part of his plea, to pay for the expense of the independent testing and the storage of the jackets earmarked for donation.

With the permission of the victim manufacturer, a project was started to alter the jackets to remove the fraudulent labels using embroidery machines that were also seized during the investigations.

The DA's office donated four seized embroidery machines to AHRC Nassau and Spectrum Designs, which trained their clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities to operate the machines and remove the counterfeit labels, ensuring the jackets were ready for charitable donation, while providing their clients with valuable, transferable occupational skills.

All of the jackets were safety tested and counterfeit trademarks were removed before they were donated.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.