An eastern Iowa businessman has been sentenced to just over three years in a federal prison for selling counterfeit clothing and accessories.  

Fifty-six-year-old Charles Edwin Sampson-Snyder ran a clothing store in Clinton.  In late February, he pled guilty to trafficking in counterfeit goods and he’s now been sentenced to 37 months in prison.

Federal prosecutors say Sampson-Snyder bought more than $100,000 worth of merchandise with “designer” labels like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci and Coach — but the clothes, jewelry and leather goods were all fake. Federal agents searched the Clinton store in 2007 and again in 2009 and found the counterfeit goods.

One of the agents who worked on the case said in a written statement that this wasn’t a “victimless” crime, as “counterfeiting commercial products undermines the economy, robs American jobs, stifles innovation, and promotes other types of crime.”