Huntington Beach woman busted for pirated DVDs

A Huntington Beach woman has pleaded guilty after police found more than 3.5 million purportedly pirated DVDs in her Little Saigon video store.

Bach Tuyet Thi Tran, 58, was convicted March 25 of failing to “disclose the origin of recording or audiovisual work” that she sold in her Mua Hong video store in Garden Grove.

“It was about a six-month investigation,” Westminster police Sgt. Dan Schoonmaker said. “We had received information from members of the community that she may be dealing in pirated DVDs.”

When officers from the department’s new, federally funded Little Saigon Investigative Unit concluded that Tran was selling the pirated product, they served search warrants at several locations including her store, Huntington Beach home and two Westminster storage units, and confiscated millions of discs, authorities said.

“It took us about 20 hours to clear all of those out,” Schoonmaker said of the DVDs, which included everything from soap operas to first-run movies in a variety of Asian languages.

Tran will pay $85,000 in restitution fees, and was sentenced to three years of probation.

“This was pretty big,” Schoonmaker said of the conviction. “We feel that she was definitely a major player in this market. We found that the product she was selling was also being sold throughout the Los Angeles area, and throughout the country.”

He said authorities’ goal was to help ensure that those who are trying to achieve the American dream by selling videos legally are able to do so without competition from peddlers of pirated goods, which can be sold for much less.

“I hope we’re sending a message,” Schoonmaker said. “We want to make sure Little Saigon continues its success, and our goal is to run illegal businesses out of town.”

Reporter CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (714) 966-4631 or at candice.baker@latimes.com.