#customs fraud

[booksandchainmail]

possible I'm misinterpreting this but it really does seem like this wholesale jewelry supplies site is asking if I'd like to do customs fraud

[allisonlegal]

Clothing Company CEO Charged With Customs Fraud

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Angel M. Melendez, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), and Troy Miller, Director, Field Operations, New York, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), announced today the…

Clothing Company CEO Charged With Customs Fraud was originally published on Allison Legal Law Firm

[allisonlegal]

Temple St. Clair to Pay Government in Whistleblower Case

Jewelry brand Temple St. Clair has agreed to pay the U.S. government nearly $800,000 after settling a suit involving failure to pay customs duties and  inventory that was not properly marked. A former inventory manager for the jewelry brand was the one who brought the case under the False Claims Act. The act allows whistleblowers,…

Temple St. Clair to Pay Government in Whistleblower Case was originally published on Allison Legal Law Firm

[allisonlegal]

Motives Group Fined for Evading US Customs Duties

A China-based manufacturer is to pay a fine of more than US $13m for evading customs duties in a double invoicing scheme designed to defraud the US of millions of dollars. Following an investigation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE), Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Motives Far East…

Motives Group Fined for Evading US Customs Duties was originally published on Allison Legal Law Firm

[customstoday]

Customs union endorses new “Customs fraud” agreement

Customs union endorses new “Customs fraud” agreement

BERLIN: COREPER, the EU’s Permanent Representatives Committee, has approved an agreement with the European Union aimed at cracking down on customs fraud.

The agreement proposes a series of updates to the current rules on the anti-fraud system. The objective is to enhance supply chain security at EU and national levels. In turn, this should better protect the financial interests of the EU and its…

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[lawyernews-blog]

Online Business Owners Arrested for Fraud, Money Laundering

Two owners of an online clothing business, along with one of their relatives, have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States of customs duties, mail fraud, structuring of cash transactions and money laundering.

Hoang Minh Nguyen, 32, Dung Hang Dao, 32, and Nga Thien Nguyen, 37, all of San Jose, were charged in a 23-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury last month.

According to court documents, between November 2008 and January 2013, Hoang Nguyen and Dao owned and operated several companies based in Patterson and San Jose that imported clothing and merchandise from China. When the companies received orders from customers, the two owners placed those orders with suppliers in China and had the goods sent directly to the United States. They declared the goods as samples, even though they intended to sell them to customers at retail value, thereby defrauding the United States of customs duties owed on the imported goods. The indictment alleges the companies collected more than $3 million in revenues from customers throughout the United States.

With the proceeds from their businesses, Hoang Nguyen and Dao sent significant amounts of cash to China via Western Union money transfers, breaking up the cash deposits into amounts of $10,000 or less in an attempt to prevent Western Union from filing reports on those currency transactions.

The indictment also alleges that Nga Thien Nguyen opened a bank account with Citibank Jan. 5, 2012, allowing her brother Hoang Minh Nguyen to access the account so that he could deposit more than $215,000 in cash. He would then break up the cash deposits into amounts of $10,000 or less in an attempt to prevent the bank from filing the currency transaction reports on those actions, in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.

[lawyernews-blog]

US Customs Officer Arrested for China Import Scheme

Sam Herbert Allen, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection supervisory officer, has been arrested on charges of conspiracy, bribery and making false statements to investigating agents with the Department of Homeland Security.

Allen, 51, of Diamond Bar, California, faces a statutory maximum penalty of 35 years in federal prison. His  ex-wife, Wei Lai, was charged with crimes related to her role in the smuggling scheme in July 2011. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is scheduled to go to trial with another defendant Feb. 19, 2013.

According to the five-count indictment, Allen served as a supervisory officer assigned to oversee the examination and release of cargo entering the United States. After he was transferred to other duties within CBP, Allen convinced his ex-wife to operate an import business that would avoid paying duties on shipments coming from the People's Republic of China. The import business – technically a "foreign trade zone" – would falsely claim that the shipments from China were not imported, but were instead immediately sent to Mexico.

The indictment alleges that Allen promised to make the shipments appear to CBP as if they had been exported to Mexico, this in exchange for bribe payments of $2,000 per shipment.

During the course the scheme, which operated from at least September 2009 until March 2010, Allen allegedly received more than $100,000 in bribe payments. The indictment alleges that the scheme caused the United States to suffer a loss of at least $781,000 in unpaid customs duties and taxes.