On May 12, Perfectus Aluminum Inc., Perfectus Aluminum Acquisitions LLC, and four affiliated warehousing companies agreed to pay a total of $549.5 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by knowingly and improperly evading, or conspiring to evade, antidumping and countervailing duties owed to the United States on aluminum extrusions imported from China.
The settlement resolves civil allegations that, from July 2011 through June 2014, the Perfectus entities knowingly made false statements on Customs Form 7501 Entry Summaries regarding the import of extruded aluminum. According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the Perfectus entities avoided antidumping and countervailing duties owed on more than 2.2 million aluminum extrusions in the form of “pallets,” which they misrepresented to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as finished merchandise not subject to such duties. The pallets were simply aluminum extrusions spot-welded together to make them appear to be functional pallets. However, there were no customers for these pallets between 2011 and 2014, and no pallets were ever sold.
On August 23, 2021, a jury in the Central District of California convicted the Perfectus entities of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States or defraud the United States, wire fraud, and passing a false or fraudulent document through a customhouse. The current settlement resolves the separate civil lawsuits filed by whistleblower...
Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP advises Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) investors that the firm is investigating potential legal claims arising from alleged false and misleading statements about the co...