John Bojorquez, 35, admitted to trafficking at least 44 counterfeit Honda airbags through his Galloway, Ohio dealership. He now faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
When a shipment landed at Chicago O’Hare in August 2024, the customs declaration read “desktop night lights.” Inside the boxes: 20 counterfeit Honda airbags, addressed to JB Ohio Auto Sale, LLC, a small used-car dealership in Galloway, Ohio. By May 2025, when federal agents executed a search warrant at the dealership, they found more fake airbags stuffed in a clothes hamper under a towel. The owner, John Bojorquez, 35, of Columbus, pleaded guilty on September 4, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. He admitted to trafficking at least 44 counterfeit airbags between August 2024 and May 2025 and now faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
What “Counterfeit Airbag” Actually Means for the Person in the Passenger Seat
These aren’t mislabeled floor mats — fake airbags can fail silently or violently, with consequences that are anything but abstract.
A counterfeit airbag may do nothing in an otherwise survivable crash, leaving occupants completely unprotected. Or it deploys catastrophically — rupturing and sending metal fragments into the cabin. NHTSA has linked illegal Chinese airbags to 10 deaths and 2 severe injuries across 12 U.S. crashes since May 2023. Unlike the Takata scandal — which left a traceable paper trail through major manufacturers — counterfeit modules are deliberately disguised as genuine OEM parts, making them far harder to detect. There is no legitimate design oversight, no safety testing, and no accountability built into the supply chain. For context on how vehicle type affects driver death rates, broader crash data underscores just how much safety equipment matters.
What Prosecutors Found
- August 2024: CBP agents at O’Hare intercept 20 counterfeit Honda airbags from China, mislabeled as “desktop night lights”
- Investigators trace four additional similar shipments from the same Chinese source
- May 2025: Search warrant at JB Ohio Auto Sale turns up fake airbags, some concealed in a clothes hamper under a towel
- Bojorquez admitted trafficking at least 44 counterfeit airbags, presenting them to customers as genuine Honda components
- Maximum federal sentence: 10 years; sentencing date not yet announced
Federal prosecutors described the scheme as a serious public safety threat — counterfeit airbags sold as genuine Honda components to drivers who had no way of knowing the difference.
If You Bought a Car From This Dealer, Here’s What to Do
No VIN list exists yet, which means direct outreach is currently the most reliable path to answers.
There is no public list identifying which specific vehicles received counterfeit airbags. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio has set up a dedicated helpline: 888-529-2820. Pull purchase paperwork and any airbag replacement records, then have a trusted independent mechanic inspect the airbag module for non-standard markings or suspicious labeling. For broader concerns about counterfeit safety equipment, NHTSA accepts Vehicle Safety Complaints at nhtsa.gov or by phone at 888-327-4236.
NHTSA is also weighing a permanent ban on certain illegal Chinese inflators — a regulatory signal that the JB Ohio case is one part of a larger, documented problem. The lesson here isn’t to distrust every small dealership. It’s that “genuine Honda parts” is only as reliable as the person saying it.
