The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 6-12:

Washington state-based auto broker BidBuy Auctions settled a customs fraud case with DOJ, agreeing to pay $430,000, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington announced. The qui tam case saw a former BidBuy employee allege the auto broker lied to CBP about the value of imported vehicles to pay less in duties. As a result of the settlement, the former employee-turned-whistleblower will get 23%, or $98,900, of the $430,000 payment.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 30 - Feb. 5:

The U.S. settled a civil suit against global trading and investment firm Samsung C&T America -- a subsidiary of Korean conglomerate Samsung C&T Corp. -- over charges SCTA violated the False Claims Act by misclassifying footwear imports to avoid paying customs duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. The importer will pay $1 million to the U.S. and make admissions over its conduct, specifically that it misclassified its imports on entry documents filed with CBP and underpaid custom duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 23-29:

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York opened and settled a case with vitamin and nutritional supplement importer International Vitamins Corp. (IVC) over the company's misclassification of its products to avoid paying customs duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Jan. 30. IVC will pay $22.87 million to the U.S. and admit to its conduct. The government joined its lawsuit with a whistleblower action filed under seal pursuant to the False Claims Act, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

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).

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 16-22:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 9-15:

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.