250K Pairs Of Pants Stolen By Lawyer, Brothers In NYC Import Plot: DA

NEW YORK CITY — A lawyer and two brothers stole more than 250,000 pairs of pants worth $2 million in a Manhattan import plot, prosecutors said.

The attorney — Joseph Sanchez, 55 — is accused of stealing the identity of a furniture company that had once entrusted him as its lawyer, according to a 79-count indictment unveiled Wednesday by District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Sanchez, along with brothers Tony Chiu, 64, and Rex Chiu, 65, used the stolen company information to produce and ship scores of pants from overseas, prosecutors said.

“This alleged deception affected a Manhattan-based company that entrusted its attorney with its business dealings," Bragg said in a statement.

"The defendants — including this formerly licensed attorney who had an ethical and professional responsibility to act with honesty — allegedly lied again and again to enrich themselves."

The scheme, as outlined by prosecutors, began in 2017 when Sanchez shared the corporate documents of Mod Societe — a Manhattan-based home furnishings importer — with the Chiu brothers.

Sanchez soon purchased a web domain with Mod Societe's name that he later used to create email accounts for fake company officers, prosecutors said.

From these phony accounts, the conspirators would email manufacturers in China to receive items on Mod Societe's credit, authorities said.

The clothing manufacturers believed they were doing business with an established company and shipped pants to a warehouse in California, from which the Chius sold them, prosecutors said.

The scheme resulted in the theft of nearly 254,000 pairs of pants, mostly jeans and jogging pants, worth about $2 million, prosecutors said.