Boise Cascade Company has pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Lacey Act and agreed to pay a $6.38 million fine for its role in a scheme involving illegally imported Chinese plywood, the U.S. Department of Justice said.<\/p>\n
The company purchased hardwood plywood from Horizon Plywood that had been routed through Malaysia to avoid U.S. countervailing and anti-dumping duties. Prosecutors said Boise Cascade either knew, or was willfully blind to, the origin of the material.<\/p>\n
The fine\u2014set at $6,382,000\u2014represents twice the gross profits derived from the transactions. The company has also been ordered to implement a court-supervised compliance plan.<\/p>\n
Third conviction in multi-year probe<\/strong><\/p>\n The case is the third criminal conviction stemming from a federal investigation into Horizon Plywood\u2019s operations, led by U.S. authorities including Homeland Security Investigations and Customs officials.<\/p>\n According to the DOJ, the scheme involved the import and resale of between $25 million and $65 million worth of plywood products. Authorities estimate that more than $42 million in duties were evaded.<\/p>\n Horizon\u2019s owners, Noel Quintana and Kelsy Quintana, were sentenced in 2024 to 57 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and Lacey Act violations. A third defendant, Marta Angelbello, was also convicted for making false statements on import declarations.<\/p>\n Purchases continued after federal raid<\/strong><\/p>\n Court documents show that Boise Cascade\u2019s distribution centre in Pompano Beach, Florida, purchased more than $30 million in hardwood plywood from Horizon between 2018 and 2021.<\/p>\n The company continued placing orders after January 2021, when federal agents executed a search warrant at Horizon\u2019s warehouse. Prosecutors said at least 10 additional orders were placed within two weeks of the raid.<\/p>\n Authorities said the imports were illegal because Horizon falsified Lacey Act declarations and concealed the true country of origin of the plywood.<\/p>\n Malaysia transhipment route<\/strong><\/p>\n The scheme relied on transhipment through Malaysia, where Chinese plywood was unloaded, repackaged into new containers, and then shipped onward to the United States with altered documentation.<\/p>\n This container-switching method has been identified in multiple enforcement actions involving wood products and other goods subject to trade duties.<\/p>\n \u201cBoise Cascade either knew about or was willfully blind to the illegal importation,\u201d said Adam Gustafson.<\/p>\n U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Qui\u00f1ones said the case demonstrates that companies benefiting from duty evasion schemes will face prosecution.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n