The federal government’s newly formed Trade Fraud Task Force has surpassed $1 billion in civil and criminal recoveries, penalties, forfeitures, and charged losses in its first year of operation, officials announced today.
Task Force Targets Trade Fraud
Launched in August 2025 by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, the task force was designed to shift trade enforcement away from standard administrative fines and toward direct criminal and civil prosecution. The joint initiative targets importers, customs brokers, and downstream distributors who bypass customs laws, evade tariffs, or import prohibited goods.
“For too long, fraud actors have viewed customs violations as a mere surcharge or cost of doing business,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “By utilizing the Department’s full weight, we are making it clear that trade fraud is a serious economic crime.
The billion-dollar milestone was pushed over the line by several recent high-profile cases, including a pair of significant gold smuggling indictments out of Chicago. Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois charged Raj Kohli and Veena Kohli, operators of California-based Surya International, with falsely declaring that hundreds of gold jewelry shipments originated in Singapore rather than their true origins in India and the United Arab Emirates.
Prosecutors allege the scheme ran from 2020 to 2024, involving over 560 separate entries of gold jewelry valued at $693 million, allowing the defendants to avoid more than $38 million in import duties.
Recent Actions
Beyond gold smuggling, the task force has targeted major industrial and commercial operations nationwide. On May 12, 2026, a criminal investigation led to a $549.5 million False Claims Act settlement with Perfectus Aluminum over a scheme to evade duties on aluminum extrusions.
Other recent actions include an $8 million criminal fine against Royal Sovereign for failing to report defective, fire-prone air conditioners, a $54 million settlement with Ceratizit USA involving unpaid duties on Chinese tungsten products, and a $6.3 million fine against Boise Cascade for importing illegal birch plywood.
Alongside these criminal prosecutions, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continues to enforce administrative actions. During the current fiscal year, CBP has assessed more than $2.1 billion in commercial trade penalties and debarred 35 parties from doing business with the federal government.
“Ensuring that the global supply chain remains a level playing field for law-abiding American businesses is a critical component of CBP’s mission,” said CBP Commissioner Rodney S. Scott. “By pairing CBP’s operational reach with DOJ’s prosecutorial authority, we are dismantling the networks that seek to bypass our laws and undermine our economic security.”
Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.
