On June 12, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced that Anyclo International Inc. (Anyclo), a clothing manufacturer based in South Korea, pleaded guilty to a federal court for evading customs duties. Anyclo was sentenced to pay fines of $250,000 in addition to agreeing to pay $2.05 million to resolve allegations of violating the False Claims Act.
According to the allegations in the settlement agreement, between 2012 and 2019 Anyclo knowingly evaded customs duties that it should have paid by undervaluing the merchandise being imported into the United States. The settlement laid out Anyclo’s system of evasion as “Specifically, for a number of sales to U.S. customers, Anyclo would prepare two versions of the same invoice for the same shipment. Anyclo would provide one version of its commercial invoice, which accurately stated the total value of the goods sold and additional costs/services provided… Anyclo also generated another version of the invoice, known as a free on board (“FOB”) invoice, that did not include the additional 3 costs or expenses. This FOB version set forth a lower value and some of the discrepancy between the two invoices was due to Anyclo’s undervaluation. Anyclo provided the fraudulent invoice to its freight forwarder, which then forwarded the information to its U.S. customs broker, knowing that the broker would use the value of the goods sold in the fraudulent invoice in filing necessary entry forms with CBP which includes,...
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