17 Indicted for Circumventing AD Order on Chinese Honey, Face $117M in Fines
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has announced that 11 individuals and six corporations were indicted on September 1, 2010 on federal charges for allegedly participating in an international conspiracy to illegally import honey from China.
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The indictment seeks forfeiture of more than $78 million in alleged unpaid antidumping duties and more than $39.5 million, representing the declared value of entries of Chinese-origin honey that entered the U.S.
The charges resulted from a large-scale investigation being conducted by the ICE Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Defendants Charged with Mislabeling Imported Honey to Avoid AD Duties
Ten of the individuals were top executives of corporate defendant Alfred L. Wolff GmbH, or four affiliated defendant companies, a German food conglomerate whose U.S. honey-importing business was based in Chicago.
The indictment claims that the defendants conspired to illegally import Chinese-origin honey, including honey tainted with antibiotics, into the U.S. by mislabeling it as originating in other countries. This was done to avoid paying antidumping duties and to conceal and expand the illegal smuggling by submitting false documents to obstruct the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Between 2002 and 2009, the defendants allegedly conspired to illegally import more than $40 million of Chinese-origin honey to avoid AD duties totaling nearly $80 million.
Indictment Says Defendants Altered/Destroyed Documents
According to the indictment, the defendants engaged in various acts to conceal their conduct and to alter and destroy records and other evidence, including internal emails and documents relating to the new shipper review process, and to obstruct the Commerce Department investigation and review.
Indictment Seeks Forfeiture of Over $117M
The indictment seeks forfeiture of more than $78 million representing allegedly unpaid AD duties. It further seeks forfeiture of more than $39.5 million, representing the declared value of 606 total entries of Chinese-origin honey that entered the U.S. between March 2002 and April 2008 which were allegedly falsely declared as having originated in one of the following countries: Russia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
It also seeks forfeiture of 2,441 drums of honey seized by the U.S. in 2008 from storage facilities.
(Between 2001 and July 2007, the Commerce Department imposed AD duties on Chinese-origin honey as high as 221% and, later, $2.06 per net kilogram of honey through the end of 2008. In October 2002, the Food and Drug Administration issued an import alert for honey containing the antibiotic Chloramphenicol, a broad spectrum antibiotic used to treat serious infections in humans, but which is not approved for use in honey production. Honey containing the antibiotics Ciprofloxacin, Norfloxacin, Chloramphenicol, and Furazolidone is deemed "adulterated" within the meaning of federal food and drug safety laws.)
Additional press release available here.