The last two suspects out of five accused individuals have pleaded guilty in an international counterfeit smuggling ring of athletic shoes.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, Wei Tung Lam and Sau Kuen Chan entered their guilty plea on May 29 to charges of conspiracy to bribe a public official and to traffic in counterfeit merchandise.

Lam also entered a guilty plea to an additional count of trafficking in counterfeit goods.

Both defendants are accused of conspiring to smuggle millions of dollars worth of knock-off Nike brand shoes, including fake Nike Air Jordan shoes from China into the United States.

A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicates the two defendants were the last of five individuals arrested last August in what is considered one of the largest counterfeit merchandise smuggling schemes in U.S. history.

The other three co-defendants also plead guilty to conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court in Tucson.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) conducted the probe, resulting in the seizure of 78 sea cargo containers with over $69 million of counterfeit merchandise. The merchandise was confiscated in July 2006 in Nogales and Phoenix as well as in Laredo, Texas and Long Beach, California.

The indictment alleges that the defendants attempted to bribe an undercover federal agent posing as a CBP officer in order to falsify government records to show that the merchandise from China to the U.S. was re-exported to Mexico, when the merchandise was intended for sale in the U.S.

“The consequences of intellectual property theft on this scale could have resulted in significant losses to our economy that undermine entrepreneurship and innovation,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Daniel G. Knauss said. “The attempt to bribe officials whose job it is to monitor the flow of goods across our borders is also disturbing.”

A conspiracy conviction carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. A conviction of trafficking in counterfeit goods carries a maximum of 10 years imprisonment, a $2 million fine or both.