Jose Farinango Muenala, a resident of Casselberry, Florida, has been sentenced to three years of probation and fined $25,000 after pleading guilty to misrepresenting goods as Indian produced. The sentencing took place on January 28, 2026, in the Western District of Wisconsin before U.S. District Judge William M. Conley.
The case began in January 2023 when the Indian Arts and Crafts Board received complaints about a vendor operating under the business name Southwest Expressions. The complaints alleged that jewelry sold at art shows was falsely represented as handmade by Pueblo Indians. An investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified Farinango Muenala as the individual behind these sales.
According to investigators, since 2012 Farinango Muenala attended numerous art shows as a vendor—including the 2023 Loon Day Festival in Mercer, Wisconsin—where he claimed to be a Pueblo or Native American from New Mexico and stated that his jewelry was handmade by himself or other Pueblo Indians. In reality, the jewelry was mass-produced and imported from the Philippines. Over an eleven-year period, Southwest Expressions made more than 40,900 sales totaling over $2.68 million.
At sentencing, Judge Conley highlighted that Farinango Muenala had "profited by regularly and intentionally misrepresenting the jewelry that he sold" for years. He also noted the importance of statutes designed to protect Native Americans.
Meridith Stanton, Director of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board at the U.S. Department of the Interior, commented: “The Indian Arts and Crafts Board, U.S. Department of the Interior, administers and enforces the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA), a truth in marketing law,” said Stanton. “The IACA is intended to rid the Indian arts and crafts marketplace of counterfeits to protect the economic livelihoods and cultural heritage of Indian artists, craftspeople, and their Tribes, as well as the buying public. Authentic Indian art and craftwork is an important tool for passing down cultural traditions, traditional knowledge, and artistic skills from one generation to the next. The defendant in this case falsely claimed to be a third-generation jewelry maker from the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico while he sold imported Philippines jewelry as authentic Indian made across several states. These sales of fake Indian art tear at the very fabric of Indian culture and undercut the marketability of the creative work of federally recognized Tribes.”
U.S. Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma joined Stanton in praising cooperation between agencies involved in investigating Farinango Muenala’s conduct. Both officials emphasized that this prosecution demonstrates accountability for violations under federal law.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Taylor L. Kraus prosecuted this case following investigations led by both U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of Interior’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board.
