John Bohorques, owner of JB Ohio Auto Sale in Ohio, pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit automotive airbags. According to the US Department of Justice, from August 2024 to May 2025, he intentionally imported and distributed at least 44 fake airbags, passing them off as original Honda components.
The scheme also involved disguising the cargo. In August 2024, customs officers at Chicago Airport intercepted a shipment from China containing 20 counterfeit airbags. In the documents, the boxes were labeled as "table nightlights." The same sender sent four more similar shipments with an identical description.
In May 2025, agents searched the dealership. They found additional counterfeit airbags, with several lying in a laundry basket under a towel. However, authorities have not yet disclosed the list of models and VINs of vehicles that might have contained these components. The exact number of cars with installed airbags has also not been determined.
The problem is not limited to logo counterfeiting. An airbag is a pyrotechnic system that must create precisely calculated pressure and deploy the airbag in fractions of a second. NHTSA warns that substandard or counterfeit components may fail to deploy or disintegrate upon deployment, ejecting metal fragments into the cabin.