Whistleblower who reported systematic skirting of customs duties on the importation of dietary supplements to receive over $4.5 million.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sanford Heisler Sharp today announced that International Vitamin Corporation (“IVC”), a leading importer of dietary supplements, has agreed to pay the United States Government $22.865 million to settle claims brought by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act. The suit was filed by Sanford Heisler Sharp in 2019 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case is thought to be among the largest ever False Claims Act settlements involving customs fraud.
The whistleblower, a former accountant for IVC, alleged that IVC systematically skirted customs duties on thousands of imports of nutritional supplements from China between January 1, 2015 and September 13, 2019. Under United States customs law, any goods imported into the United States must be declared to United States Customs and Border Protection, and the importer must certify information about the goods, including the volume, cost, and applicable tariff. The whistleblower alleged that IVC knowingly submitted false documentation to avoid customs duties on 32 products and continued to do so well after it knew that the tariff classifications it was using were incorrect. IVC also failed to notify the Government of the misclassifications and pay duties on its past imports as required under federal law,...
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