The Department of Justice reports that a Florida couple faces significant prison time and monetary penalties for a scheme to evade import duties.
According to the DOJ, the couple formed seven shell companies in the U.S. that imported hundreds of shipments of plywood products between February 2016 and December 2020. Before April 2017 these companies almost exclusively declared the shipments to be hardwood plywood from China, but thereafter they evaded antidumping and countervailing duties of more than 200 percent on such goods by falsely declaring hardwood plywood from China to be either the product of another country or made with a species of wood not subject to the duties. A DOJ official noted that the couple “repeatedly violated the law, refining their schemes each time one was exposed.”
By falsifying import declarations for these goods the couple also violated the Lacey Act, which requires imports of plant products to include a declaration containing the plant’s scientific name and country of origin and makes it unlawful to transport or sell a plant product knowing it or the plant it was made from was transported in violation of any plant-related law.
The DOJ notes that the couple faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each violation along with forfeitures up to $42 million.
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