A federal court recently dismissed a whistleblower lawsuit filed over pipes imported from China that were allegedly misclassified in order to avoid antidumping and countervailing duties. The May 23 decision in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division was highlighted in a Hogan Lovells blog post. The False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit was filed by Roger Schagrin, a lawyer with experience in international trade and the steel industry, in 2014 against LDR Industries. Plaintiffs in successful whistleblower lawsuits involving defrauding the government are allowed to receive a portion of the recovered funds.
A recently announced Justice Department policy limits the circumstances under which companies can be held liable for violating agency guidance documents. Issued Jan. 25, the policy memo prohibits DOJ lawyers from enforcing agency guidance documents as if they were binding in “affirmative civil enforcement cases,” including False Claims Act lawsuits. The new policy extends across government a policy adopted in November that prohibited DOJ from issuing binding guidance on its own behalf or enforcing its own guidance as binding.
A U.K. retailer, and its chief executive, that allegedly split shipments to avoid duties settled a whistleblower lawsuit against the company for about $900,000, the Justice Department said in a news release. The company, Pure Collection, and its CEO Samantha Harrison were said to separate single orders exceeding the de minimis value threshold into multiple smaller parcels in order to evade customs duties on imports over the de minimis level (see 1709080037). "This Settlement Agreement is neither an admission of liability by Pure nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded," the parties said in the court filing.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 5 - 9 in case they were missed.
Another dorm room furniture importer will pay $500,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleges it misclassified bedroom furniture from China in order to evade antidumping and countervailing duties. Home Furnishings Resource Group purportedly entered its dressers and chests of drawers as non-bedroom furniture to save on the 216% AD duty in effect at the time. The False Claims Act suit was filed by University Loft, the plaintiff in several other whistleblower suits claiming dorm furniture misclassification.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan. 22-26 in case they were missed.
A textile importer will pay more than $2.3 million to settle allegations that it misclassified its entries to save on duties, in violation of the False Claims Act, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a recent press release. American Dawn and its owners, Adnan Rawjee, Habib Rawjee and Mahmud Rawjee, allegedly entered terry bath towels as “polishing clothes,” costing the U.S. government over $1 million in unpaid duties, according to the underlying complaint, filed by a former employee.
The Justice Department recently issued a memo detailing circumstances when its attorneys should seek dismissal of False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuits. In addition to the government’s ability to intervene on the whistleblower’s side in False Claims Act suits, the law also gives it the less commonly used ability to end cases, even without the whistleblower’s consent. According to the memo, dated Jan. 10, government lawyers should ask courts to dismiss False Claims Act suits in which the whistleblower’s claims are meritless or frivolous, or when the lawsuit is “parasitic or opportunistic” in that it duplicates an existing government investigation or the suit interferes with an agency’s policies or programs.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan. 16-19 in case they were missed.
A Virginia-based furniture importer has agreed to pay $10.5 million to settle a whistleblower’s claims that it made false statements on entry documentation in an attempt to evade antidumping duties, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 16 press release. Bassett Mirror Company allegedly misclassified its furniture as non-bedroom furniture, avoiding a 216% AD duty on wooden bedroom furniture from China. The settlement ends a False Claims Act case filed by Kelly Wells, an ecommerce furniture retailer, and subsequently joined by the government. Wells will receive $1.9 million, which comes on top of another $2.4 million Wells received in an associated whistleblower case against Z Gallerie in 2016 (see 1604270033).