State accuses Anchorage studio of selling fake ‘Made in Alaska’ products

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - One Anchorage souvenir shop is facing a civil lawsuit by the state of Alaska for allegedly selling fake “Made in Alaska” products. The owners of the souvenir shop, B Merry Studio, are being charged with consumer fraud for claiming that their products were made only in Alaska.

According to the Alaska Department of Law, the studio purchases bones and antlers as raw animal materials, then ships them to the Philippines where they are then turned into knives or other products finished products. Once the items returned, they were then labeled as being “made in Alaska.”

“First, the products that are being sold, are sold as ‘Alaskan made’ or sometimes as ‘made in Alaska,’ when in fact a large portion of those products are manufactured overseas, often in the Philippines,” said John Haley, assistant attorney general with the state law department.

Another concern by the state is that some of the items were being marked as being made from Steller’s sea cow. But, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the studio that DNA testing had revealed the company’s knives were actually made from something else, possibly bowhead whale bones, said Darryl Thompson, an attorney for B Merry Studio. Any time animal products are shipped through customs they must be declared through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so the declarations of large amounts of products is how this lawsuit got started, both he and Haley said.

“I think one of the things we hope is that other companies out there will sort of see this and recognize that they need to be a little bit more careful,” Haley said. “They need to make sure they’re advertising their products properly and we hope that retail stores will take this as an opportunity to make sure that they know their suppliers, and their suppliers are giving them things that are accurately labeled.”

However, Thompson says the products were made in Alaska and only some of the products were sent to the Philippines for what he called “assist” work. He also stated that his client bought the bones from a reputable bone dealer. Because of this, his client believed the dealer and marketed his products accordingly.

Upon being shown the DNA results for the bowhead whale bones, Thompson said his client issued a notice his retailers to inform them of the bones’ true DNA and offered to buy them back if they no longer wanted to keep them.

In order to have a permit to sell “Made in Alaska” products the items have to be at least 51% made in the state of Alaska, according to Thompson. He said that 85% of his client’s souvenirs are in fact made here in the state.

Haley said the state has asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent the studio from continuing to produce the goods in question while the case in ongoing.

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