Ohio dealership owner pleads guilty to trafficking counterfeit airbags
An Ohio car dealership owner has pleaded guilty in federal court to trafficking counterfeit airbags from China into the U.S., according to a press release from the Southern District of Ohio U.S. Attorney’s Office.
John Bojorquez, 35, of Columbus, admitted to intentionally trafficking at least 44 counterfeit airbags from August 2024 to May 2025, the release states. It adds that he claimed the airbags were Honda airbags for vehicles he sold at JB Ohio Auto Sale.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 20 counterfeit Honda airbags at Chicago O’Hare International Airport in August 2024, according to the release. It adds that the boxes were falsely described as containing desktop night lights and were addressed to Bojorquez at JB Ohio Auto Sale in Galloway.
Four similar shipments of counterfeit Honda airbags were sent by the same Chinese shipper that month, the release states. Each shipment was labeled as desktop night lights or blue desktop nightlights.
A search warrant was executed at JB Ohio Auto Sale in May 2025, the release states. Multiple counterfeit airbags were seized, with some found in a clothes hamper covered by a towel, according to the release.
Sentencing has yet to be determined, but the crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Anyone who purchased a vehicle from JB Auto Sale and suspects the vehicle has a counterfeit airbag is asked to call the U.S. Attorney’s Office at 888-529-2820.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently identified an 11th death caused by a counterfeit airbag part that the agency banned earlier this year.
The death happened Aug. 27 in Dallas, Texas, and is described as an otherwise survivable crash by NHTSA.
It is the first death involving one of the replacement airbag inflators installed in a Chevrolet Equinox, according to a NHTSA press release. The previous 10 deaths and three serious injuries happened in Chevrolet Malibu and Hyundai Sonata vehicles.
eBay also recently announced it will no longer permit the sale of airbags on its platform starting later this month, according to a post on its community forums.
The decision follows a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article that identified eBay as a location where deadly counterfeit airbags have been sold.
While automakers sell certified replacement parts for deployed airbags, counterfeit airbags sell for as little as $100 on websites such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace — one-tenth of the typical OEM cost, the WSJ reported. Often the parts are labeled as OEM.
NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison told the WSJ that a traditional recall is unlikely to work for counterfeit parts.
“Normally, carmakers can easily trace where potentially problematic parts originated and how they were imported, but with the substandard airbag parts, there are no records of who sent them to the U.S. and distributed them,” the article states.
NHTSA Deputy Administrator Lee White will open the Society of Collision Repair Specialists’ (SCRS) 2026 OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit during the SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
White will present on the agency’s current vehicle and roadway safety priorities, emerging transportation technologies, data-driven research, and the federal government’s work with the industry to reduce fatalities and serious injuries, an SCRS press release states.
Following White’s presentation, he will sit down with Aaron Schulenburg, SCRS executive director, for a one-on-one conversation exploring the intersection between federal safety objectives, automotive innovation, and the collision repair industry’s role in preserving vehicle safety throughout its service life.
Teena Bohi, an Automotive Anti-Counterfeiting Council (A2C2) board member, said during a Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meeting in July that NHTSA’s investigation has uncovered how dangerous counterfeit parts find their way into vehicles.
“Up until the point that a counterfeit product gets installed in the vehicle, everything about it is legal,” she added.
The vehicles are typically fleet vehicles or self-insured vehicles that were at some point totaled, Bohi said.
Technicians looking for guidance on identifying a DTN airbag can also refer to a NHTSA document. The document outlines materials and design characteristics that can be used to indicate whether an airbag is counterfeit. DTN airbags are also often marked with DTN60DB. Yet, it can be hard to identify DTN airbags when they’re still installed in a vehicle.
“How do you safely handle these things, and what do you do if you get one? Because there are special permits to transport or get rid of these things if there is a counterfeit because we don’t know what’s in them. It’s an unknown explosive, potentially,” Bohi said.
NHTSA’s technician guidance does offer warnings that strongly advise technicians not to electronically probe or electrify airbag connecting terminals because they can detonate and cause serious injury or death.
Bud Center, I-CAR director of technical products and curriculum, previously told Repairer Driven News that electronic probes can be used to deploy a removed airbag. However, if a repairer believes an airbag is counterfeit, they should contact the vehicle’s OEM and ask for instructions.
Center dives into the issue of counterfeit parts from the collision shop level in I-CAR’s most recent Repairers Realm web series episode.
Nearly all OEMs and many major aftermarket parts companies have people within their organizations who can answer questions concerning products, Bohi said.
If an owner has a vehicle with one of these suspect inflators, they should contact their local Homeland Security Investigations office or FBI field office to report it or submit an online complaint to the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.
Owners should also contact NHTSA, online or via the agency’s Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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