On February 20, 2025, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Commercial Litigation Branch at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Michael Granston, emphasized using the False Claims Act (FCA) to address U.S. Customs & Border Protection (Customs) violations at the Federal Bar Association’s annual qui tam conference. According to Granston, the Trump administration will seek to “aggressively” deploy the FCA as a “powerful” enforcement mechanism against importers that take steps to evade customs duties, including all the new tariffs being imposed by the Trump administration.
The application of the FCA for underpayments of customs tariffs is already a growing trend. The increased tariffs and attention will combine to increase the number of FCA actions targeting tariff underpayments and the potential amount of recoveries. The U.S. government has unparalleled access to detailed import data covering nearly all imports, giving it the ability to run algorithms to see discrepancies and anomalies that might indicate the underpayment of tariffs. The FCA also can be enforced by whistleblowers who file qui tam suits in the government’s name, in hopes of receiving a share of the recovery in successful cases. Taken together, these factors mean the scene is set for a vast expansion of the use of the FCA as a tool to combat tariff underpayments.
Against this scrutiny, importers should ensure they accurately determine and pay all tariffs, including the new Trump tariffs. The...
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