Contact lens retailer pleads guilty to counterfeit imports

Dmitriy V. Melnik, owner and operator of Las Vegas-based Candy Color Lenses, pleaded guilty to running an international operation involving imports of counterfeit and misbranded contact lenses, which mostly came from China and South Korea.    Dmitriy V. Melnik, owner and operator of Candy Color Lenses, a major online retailer of colored contact lenses in the United States, pleaded guilty to running an international operation involving imports of counterfeit and misbranded contact lenses, which he in turn sold to “tens of thousands of customers” throughout the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said.
   The illicit contact lenses were provided by a network of suppliers, mostly from China and South Korea, and sold over the internet without a prescription.
   Many of the contact lenses bore labels with counterfeit trademarks for Ciba Vision FreshLook COLORBLENDS, which are manufactured by Novartis International, and others had labels of brands of contact lenses produced and sold in Asia.     
   According to the plea agreement, many customers complained to Melnik about the quality of his contact lenses and questioned him about whether the contact lenses were approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
   “Melnik admitted that some of the contact lenses he sold were tested and found to be contaminated with potentially hazardous bacteria,” the Justice Department said.
   Most of the scheme involved sales outside the United States. It’s estimated that Melnik generated about $1.2 million from the illegal sales, including about $200,000 alone from the sale of counterfeit Ciba Vision FreshLook COLORBLENDS.