A $6.3 million settlement was reached Monday to resolve claims that companies misclassified auto parts manufactured in China and imported to the U.S. to evade $2.5 million in duties, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Six companies from the U.S. and China, as well as two named individuals, allegedly violated the False Claims Act by knowingly misclassifying auto manifolds to obtain a duty rate of zero, ICE said, while charging its customers the correct duty of 2.5%, and retaining as "profit" the duty that should have been paid to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Between June 2004 and June 2011, the U.S. alleged that the company evaded $2,549,000 worth of duties on 706 entries involving manifolds valued at $102 million.
Direct Resource Inc. has agreed to pay the government $450,000 to resolve allegations that the company falsely claimed payment in violation of the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), which prohibits the sale of products to federal agencies from countries that do not have a reciprocal trade agreement with the United States, the Justice Department said May 8, 2012.
The U.S. Justice Department said it intervened in a lawsuit against Japanese company, Toyo Ink Manufacturing Co. Ltd., that is accused of misrepresenting the country of origin on documents presented to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to avoid paying antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of the colorant carbazole violet pigment number 23 (CVP-23).
The following are trade-related highlights of the Executive Communications sent to Congress for December 30, 2011 - January 19, 2012:
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Jane Norberg has been appointed as Deputy Chief of the Office of the Whistleblower, which oversees the agency's whistleblower program. The Chief of the Office of the Whistleblower stated that Norberg will help fulfill the mission of "administering a vigorous whistleblower program that will help the SEC identify and halt frauds early and quickly to minimize investor losses."
The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued its first annual report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program for fiscal year 2011. Most whistleblower tips submitted to the SEC concerned complaints related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and market manipulation, among other topics. Additionally, most tips were submitted by individuals in California, New York, and foreign countries, including China. However, because the final rule establishing the program became effective in August 2011, only seven weeks of data was available for FY 2011. As a result, the SEC states it is too early to identify any specific trends or conclusions from the data collected to date.
Sources at the Securities and Exchange Commission state that they are “working to issue as soon as possible” the final rule that would change the disclosure and reporting requirements of certain issuers that file reports pursuant to the conflict mineral provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act1, when conflict minerals are necessary to their product line.
On January 3, 2012, the Justice Department announced that Maersk Line Limited has agreed to pay the government $31.9 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the U.S. in connection with overcharging for transporting cargo in shipping containers for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. This lawsuit was filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.
The following are trade-related highlights of the Executive Communications sent to Congress for December 1 - 16, 2011:
The White House has posted information on the Open Government Partnership (OGP) launched by the U.S. and Brazil on September 20, 2011 during the United Nations General Assembly. The eight founding members of the OGP signed a declaration and presented their action plans of commitments, and 38 governments said they would join the initiative and announce their action plans in March 2012.