Puerto Rico Importers Plead Guilty to Evading AD/CV Duties on Aluminum Extrusions
A Puerto Rico-based importer and four of its executives pleaded guilty Aug. 18 to conspiring to smuggle goods into the U.S. in order to evade antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China. PRP Trading and its co-owners Armando Garcia Vazquez, Edrick Garcia Vazquez, Samuel Garcia Adarme and Carlos Minguela Ortiz participated in a scheme to transship merchandise and make it appear that Chinese-origin aluminum extrusions were instead from Malaysia, according to their guilty pleas at the Puerto Rico U.S. District Court.
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According to the plea agreements, PRP Trading had the Chinese-origin extrusions shipped to PA Extrusion in Malaysia, which would repackage the merchandise and create a fake invoice. PRP Trading submitted the false invoices to CBP for over $6.5 million worth of imported aluminum extrusions. They avoided over $2 million in AD/CV duties. Their payments to PA Extrusion included a premium for the Malaysian company’s transshipment services and fraudulent invoicing, said PRP Trading’s plea agreement.
U.S. District Judge Francisco Besosa has scheduled a sentencing hearing for December, said CBP in a press release. Court documents indicate Samuel Garcia, Erick Garcia, and Minguela will each pay a $1,000 fine. The plea agreement for Armando Garcia says he should get 30-37 months in prison, but the government recommended the court order probation instead.