Importer High Life and the U.S. settled a False Claims Act case in which the company was charged with knowingly underreporting the value of apparel entries, leading it to avoid duty payments. According to a stipulation and order of settlement filed Jan. 25 at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, High Life will pay the government $1.3 million, $650,000 of which counts as restitution. The company agreed to fully cooperate with the U.S. investigation of the other individuals and entities linked to the customs fraud scheme (United States v. High Life, S.D.N.Y. # 23-00631).
Richard Kazmaier, former associate professor of biology at West Texas A&M University, was sentenced to six months in prison, three years of post-release supervision and a $5,000 fine for "importing protected wildlife" without declaring it or getting the proper permits, DOJ announced Jan. 11. Kazmaier admitted to importing around 358 wildlife items -- skulls, skeletons and taxidermy mounts -- in violation of the Lacey Act.
The Federal Maritime Commission is adjusting its civil monetary penalties for inflation, the agency said in a notice. The changes, effective Jan. 15, increase maximum penalties for various violations of U.S. shipping regulations, including illegal foreign shipping practices that have an “adverse impact” on U.S. carriers, “knowing and willful” violations of the Shipping Act,” and operating in foreign commerce after a tariff suspension.
The U.S. charged two Dubai-based companies and three individuals for their roles in a scheme to import non-organic grain to the U.S., where it would be sold as certified organic, DOJ announced. Named in an indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the Dubai entities are Hakan Agro DMCC and Hakan Organics DMCC, and the individuals are Turkish citizens Goksal Beyaz, Nuray Beyaz and Mustafa Cakiroglu. All five parties were charged with conspiracy, smuggling and wire fraud.
Cannabis and cannabis accessory importers now have a "strong legal argument with potentially broad applications to challenge CBP's seizures" of marijuana paraphernalia in light of two recent Court of International Trade decisions, Harris Bricken lawyer Adams Lee said in a Dec. 16 blog post. Both cases involved the question of whether an importer could enter marijuana-related drug paraphernalia into Washington state, given that marijuana was made legal at the state level but remained illegal federally. Lee said that given how the opinions were structured, a state law repealing a past prohibition on such products "could be enough of an 'authorization' by the state law to block the federal prohibition on importing drug paraphernalia."