The Department of Justice this week rolled out additional trade enforcement tools amid news that intensified efforts over the past year have already brought in more than $1 billion.
Importers are well-advised to ensure they have strong compliance measures in place so as to withstand this increased federal scrutiny and avoid the financial and reputational costs that violations and resulting penalties could incur. For more information on how ST&R can assist your company with its compliance efforts, please contact messages@strtrade.com or your ST&R professional.
Trade Fraud Task Force
In early 2025 the DOJ announced that its Criminal Division’s enforcement priorities for prosecuting corporate and white-collar crimes would include “trade and customs fraudsters, including those who commit tariff evasion.” To reflect that effort the division expanded its corporate whistleblower awards pilot program to add “trade, tariff, and customs fraud by corporations” as a priority area.
The DOJ subsequently put teeth into that effort by launching a “revitalized” Trade Fraud Task Force, and a July 14 DOJ press release indicated that this task force has been taking an aggressive and comprehensive approach to its work. The TFTF “has a nationwide mandate to investigate and prosecute trade fraud and related cases,” the DOJ stated. “Any offense involving the importation of an object may be inquired of and prosecuted in any district from, through, or into which the imported object moves. Moreover, federal law criminalizes down-chain activities involving merchandise entered contrary to law when done with knowledge of the illegal entry. As a result, the port of entry is only the starting point for these actions, which may also be prosecuted in the district that feels the impact of the trade fraud.”
In addition, the press release stated, the TFTF’s mandate “covers the entire supply chain, including importers, customs brokers, downstream distributors, industrial and commercial end-users, and other supply-chain actors who knowingly profit from merchandise imported contrary to law.” While the task force has broad enforcement authority, it is focusing on “key revenue and enforcement priorities,” including the evasion of import tariffs and duties, forced labor in global supply chains, and imports that threaten public health and safety.
Results to Date
As a result of these efforts, the DOJ said, the task force has already surpassed $1 billion in civil and criminal recoveries, penalties, forfeitures, and publicly charged losses in less than a year. Moreover, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has assessed more than $2.1 billion in commercial trade penalties and debarred 35 parties from doing business with the federal government so far this fiscal year. A department press release said these milestones reflect “a fundamental shift in the federal government’s approach to customs and trade enforcement, emphasizing rigorous criminal prosecution and civil enforcement under the False Claims Act.”
New Measures
The DOJ is looking to build on these results by establishing a new Global Trade and Commerce Enforcement Section within its National Fraud Enforcement Division. According to the press release, the GTCES’s mission is to investigate and prosecute criminal import, trade, and other fraud offenses that undermine U.S. industries, evade external revenue collection, threaten consumers’ health and safety, finance foreign adversaries, promote forced labor through illegal trade practices, and violate U.S. laws and regulations governing domestic and foreign commerce.
Further, the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security have released “A Resource Guide to Trade Fraud Enforcement,” which they called “a roadmap for cross-border compliance and enforcement priorities.” This guide addresses topics such as who and what is covered by customs regulations and laws against trade fraud as well as the different types of civil and criminal resolutions available in trade fraud enforcement.
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