CIT Says Importer Owes Nearly $3 Million in Penalties Despite Bankruptcy Filing
The Court of International Trade granted a motion for default judgment against a food importer, Rupari Food Services, and said the company owes "$2,784,636.18, plus post-judgment interest," in a March 9 opinion. That amount is based on the CBP penalty claim against the importer prior to Rupari filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The decision follows another CIT decision in the same case that said bankruptcy protections don't apply to Section 592 penalty cases (see 1708110027).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The CIT granted the default judgment because "clear and convincing evidence establishes the materiality and falsehood of Rupari’s representations to Customs." Specifically, Rupari claimed that imported crawfish tail meat originated from Thailand and not China, where the meat actually originated from. Rupari in 1998 submitted false information to CBP on behalf of Seamaster, a company in Thailand created by Rupari's Chinese supplier of crawfish tail meat. The documents "were intended to secure the release of Seamaster’s five seized crawfish tail meat entries into" the U.S.
(U.S. v. Rupari Food Services, Inc., Slip Op. 18-20, CIT # 10-00119, dated 03/09/18, Judge Katzmann)
(Attorneys: Mikki Cottet for plaintiff U.S. government; defendant Rupari Food Services, Inc. in default)