A Los Angeles-based wholesale clothing importer and two of its executives were sentenced on Sept. 29 for avoiding payment of over $8 million in customs duties on imported clothing and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced.
Two Colorado companies and their top executives were indicted last month for conspiring to evade tariff payments on their imports of forklifts, DOJ announced on Sept. 30. The companies, Endless Sales and Octane Forklifts; current executives Brian Firkins and Jeffrey Blasdel; and former executive J.R. Antczak allegedly conspired to undervalue the forklifts from China at entry, then hide their Chinese origin and sell them to federal government agencies by declaring them to be made in the U.S.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 22-28:
The U.S. opened a customs penalty suit last week against wire garment hanger importer LGA Trading and its director, Galo Goya, at the Court of International Trade, seeking over $3.1 million as a penalty for negligence and over $1.9 million in unpaid duties (United States v. LGA Trading, CIT # 25-00214).
CBP and trading company Letex Apparels on Sept. 25 settled Letex's negligence suit against the agency for damaging its imports in the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport port (see 2505220057). The parties said they will be filing a stipulation of dismissal within the next 30 days (Letex Apparels Co. v. United States, C.D. Cal. # 2:25-04462).
The case against the lists 3 and 4A tariffs is unlikely to be heard by the Supreme Court or the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the recent decision from the Federal Circuit upholding the tariffs likely gives the Trump administration greater confidence in using tariff authorities other than the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, various attorneys told us.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 15-21:
Two Chinese nationals were recently sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for importing fentanyl precursor chemicals and money laundering through Wuhan-based chemical manufacturer Amarvel Biotech, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced last week. Qingzhou Wang, who operated as Amarvel's principal executive, was sentenced Sept. 18 to 25 years in prison, while Yiyi Chen, the company's marketing manager, was sentenced last month to 15 years.
The Supreme Court set oral argument for the lead cases on the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for Nov. 5 (Donald J. Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, U.S. 25-250) (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, U.S. 24-1287).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 8-14: