BOSTON – Yogibo, a New Hampshire-based furniture seller, has agreed to pay $217,832 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to pay customs duties on imports from China.
Customs laws require importers to pay duties on the price paid for imported goods, including the cost of quality control testing, product design services, foreign inland freight and more.
Between 2016 and 2022, Yogibo imported goods from a Chinese manufacturer, Leadershow Home Textile Co., Ltd (Leadershow). For each shipment, Leadershow provided Yogibo with two invoices: a commercial invoice listing one price for the goods being imported; and a second invoice (which Yogibo called the “QC Invoice”) that included a separate and additional charge for inland freight from Leadershow to a Chinese port, design services and quality control testing. Yogibo did not provide the QC Invoice to its customs broker for determining duties owed to the United States government on Leadershow imports and instead, only provided the commercial invoice with the lower total price. As a result, the customs broker did not calculate the duties owed based the total cost of the goods, including the additional charges on the QC Invoice.
Under the Department of Justice’s guidelines for taking disclosure, cooperation and remediation into account in False Claims Act cases, the Department of Justice credited Yogibo’s cooperation in this matter.
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