- Tuesday, 11/03, PNCT will be CLOSED for Election Day
- All Maher Terminals facilities including the Empty Depot located at Columbia will be open for truck line activity between the hours of 6 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 (Election Day).
Lumber Liquidators Inc. Pleads Guilty to Environmental Crimes and Agrees to Pay More Than $13 Million in Fines, Forfeiture and Community Service Payments
U.S Fish & Wildlife
First Felony Conviction for Import of Illegal Timber and Largest Fine Ever under the Lacey Act
Virginia-based hardwood flooring retailer Lumber Liquidators Inc. pleaded guilty today in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, to environmental crimes related to its illegal importation of hardwood flooring, much of which was manufactured in China from timber that had been illegally logged in far eastern Russia, in the habitat of the last remaining Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in the world, announced the Department of Justice.
Lumber Liquidators was charged earlier this month in the Eastern District of Virginia with one felony count of importing goods through false statements and four misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to import timber that was taken in violation of the laws of a foreign country and to transport falsely-labeled timber across international borders into the United States. The charges describe Lumber Liquidators’ use of timber that was illegally logged in Far East Russia, as well as false statements on Lacey Act declarations which obfuscated the true species and source of the timber. This is the first felony conviction related to the import or use of illegal timber and the largest criminal fine ever under the Lacey Act.
“Lumber Liquidators’ race to profit resulted in the plundering of forests and wildlife habitat that, if continued, could spell the end of the Siberian tiger,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Lumber Liquidators knew it had a duty to follow the law, and instead it flouted the letter and spirit of the Lacey Act, ignoring its own red flags that its products likely came from illegally harvested timber, all at the expense of law abiding competitors. Under this plea agreement, Lumber Liquidators will pay a multi-million dollar penalty, forfeit millions in assets, and must adhere to a rigorous compliance program. We hope this sends a strong message that we will not tolerate such abuses of U.S. laws that protect and preserve the world’s endangered plant and animal species.”
“This prosecution has been the result of hard work of federal agents and prosecutors who have been dedicated to protecting our natural habitats in the United States and around the world,” said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Companies knowingly accepting illegally sourced materials need to recognize there are far-reaching consequences to their actions,” said Special Agent in Charge Clark E. Settles of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. “In this case, in addition to violating U.S. customs law, Lumber Liquidators contributed to the potential eradication of an endangered species simply to increase profit margins.”
“This multi-agency investigation highlights the importance the U.S. Government places on protecting tree species around the world from unlawful import, export and trade, and the effectiveness of the Lacey Act in implementing those protections,” said Deputy Assistant Director Ed Grace of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Office of Law Enforcement. “Thanks to this intergovernmental team, the habitat of the last remaining Siberian tigers and Amur leopards will no longer be threatened by the activities of this company. This case and today’s plea deal demonstrate that those engaged in the commercialization of illegal timber imported into the United States will be caught and held accountable.”
According to a joint statement of facts filed with the court, from 2010 to 2013, Lumber Liquidators repeatedly failed to follow its own internal procedures and failed to take action on self-identified “red flags.” Those red flags included imports from high risk countries, imports of high risk species, imports from suppliers who were unable to provide documentation of legal harvest and imports from suppliers who provided false information about their products. Despite internal warnings of risk and non-compliance, very little changed at Lumber Liquidators.
For example, Lumber Liquidators employees were aware that timber from the Russian Far East was considered, within the flooring industry and within Lumber Liquidators, to carry a high risk of being illegally sourced due to corruption and illegal harvesting in that remote region. Despite the risk of illegality, Lumber Liquidators increased its purchases from Chinese manufacturers using timber sourced in the Russian Far East. In 2013, the defendant imported Russian timber logged under a concession permit that had been utilized so many times that the defendants’ imports alone exceeded the legal harvest allowance of Mongolian oak, Quercus mongolica, by more than 800 percent. The investigation revealed a prevalent practice in timber smuggling enterprises, where a company uses a seemingly legitimate government permit to log trees. Corruption and criminal activity along the supply chain results in the same permit being used multiple times and in areas outside of the designated logging area, sometimes vastly exceeding its legal limits.
On other occasions, Lumber Liquidators falsely reported the species or harvest country of timber when it was imported into the United States. In 2013, Lumber Liquidators imported Mongolian oak from Far East Russia which it declared to be Welsh oak and imported merpauh from Myanmar which it declared to be mahogany from Indonesia.
The illegal cutting of Mongolian oak in far eastern Russia is of particular concern because those forests are home to the last 450 wild Siberian tigers, Panthera tigris altaica. Illegal logging is considered the primary risk to the tigers’ survival, because they are dependent on intact forests for hunting and because Mongolian oak acorns are a chief food source for the tigers’ prey species. Mongolian oak forests are also home to the highly endangered Amur leopard Panthera pardus orientalis, of which fewer than 50 remain in the wild. In June 2014, in response to illegal logging and the decline in tiger populations, Mongolian oak was added to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix III.
Under the plea agreement, Lumber Liquidators will pay $13.15 million, including $7.8 million in criminal fines, $969,175 in criminal forfeiture and more than $1.23 million in community service payments. Lumber Liquidators has also agreed to a five year term of organizational probation and mandatory implementation of a government-approved environmental compliance plan and independent audits. In addition, the company will pay more than $3.15 million in cash through a related civil forfeiture. The more than $13.15 million dollar penalty is the largest financial penalty for timber trafficking under the Lacey Act and one of the largest Lacey Act penalties ever. The company is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 1, 2016.
The $1,230,825 in community service payments is being provided to two Congressionally-chartered recipients, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NWFW) and the USFWS Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund. One project that will be funded is the development of a wood identification device that if successful, could fill a critical gap in enforcement when it comes to identifying the species of timber at a border or in an enforcement scenario. The device would be able to identify timber species that are listed on the CITES Appendices, including the species that were at issue in this case. If U.S. border officials would have had access to such a device in 2011, then perhaps Lumber Liquidators could have been flagged for violation years ago, thus averting the flow of money back to China and Far East Russia in support of illegal logging. Other projects would involve protecting, researching and preserving the Siberian tiger, Amur leopard and their habitat.
The case was jointly investigated by agents of the USFWS and HSI as part of Operation Oakenshield. The case is being prosecuted by Patrick M. Duggan and Christopher L. Hale of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Stephen Haynie and Kevin P. Hudson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Norfolk.
Philadelphia CBP Intercepts 5 Destructive Invaders Never Reported Before in US, Delaware Valley
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed Thursday that five insect pests that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists intercepted recently in the Port of Philadelphia are significant interceptions, including an insect never recorded before in the United States, and four never seen before locally.
CBP intercepted the first-in-nation Steirastoma histrionica (Cerambycidae), a species of longhorned beetle, in a container of Costa Rica melons on March 17, 2014.
CBP submitted the pest to the local USDA entomologist who identified the species on September 21. Two days later, the entomologist advised CBP that the insect is a pest new to the United States. According to the USDA, longhorn beetles pose a significant threat to coniferous and deciduous forests and kills live trees.
The four pests observed for the first time in the Delaware Valley include:
- Paulinia (Acrididae), a species of grasshopper, discovered in Colombian pineapples on September 21. Species of Acrididae are major pests of praries primarily feeding off of grains, pasture and vegetable crops.
- Donus zoilus (Curculionidae), a species of clover leaf weevil, discovered in Costa Rica pineapples on September 15. Clover leaf beetles are considered serious agricultural pests of clover and alfalfa.
- Limnobaris calandriformis (Cucurlionidae), a species of true weevils, discovered in Costa Rica pineapples on September 15. True Weevils, are serious pests of palms and have been suggested as a possible vector of red-ring disease, an important disease of oil palms.
- Parandra (Cerambycidae), a species of wood borers, discovered in wood dunnage supporting steel coils and steel plates from Brazil on May 20. The USDA confirms only two previous interceptions in the U.S. of Parandra – in 2003 and 2007. Wood boring members of the family Cerambycidae, are known as major agricultural pests of coniferous and deciduous forests worldwide; attacking and killing live trees.
The shipment of Costa Rica melons and Brazilian steel were re-exported. The three pineapple shipments were fumigated and released to distributors in Florida.
“Intercepting these destructive insect invaders at our nation’s borders before they can threaten our agriculture industries is of paramount importance to Customs and Border Protection,” said Susan Stranieri, CBP Port Director for the Area Port of Philadelphia. “CBP agriculture specialists take their job very serious, and recording these ‘first in nation’ and ‘first in port’ insect interceptions are significant discoveries.”
CBP agriculture specialists have extensive training and experience in the biological sciences, risk analysis, and in imported agriculture inspection techniques. CBP agriculture specialists are the first line of defense in the protection of U.S. agriculture, forest and livestock industries from exotic destructive plant pests and animal diseases.
On a typical day nationally, CBP agriculture specialists inspect over 1 million people as well as air and sea cargo imported to the United States and intercept 4,447 prohibited meat, plant materials or animal products, including 425 agriculture pests and diseases. Read more about CBP’s agriculture protection mission.
CBP routinely conducts inspection operations on arriving and departing international flights and intercepts narcotics, weapons, unreported currency, prohibited agriculture products, and other illicit items. View CBP’s ‘Typical Day’ enforcement stats at CBP Snapshot.
Counterfeit Jewelry Worth $2.85 Million Seized by CBP at Miami International Airport
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
MIAMI - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at Miami International Airport seized 1,200 counterfeit Tiffany bracelets, which, if genuine, would have a total estimated Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) value of $2,850,000. The jewelry arrived in a shipment from China.
CBP officers suspected the jewelry to be counterfeit because the bracelets did not appear to be of the quality consistent with the products normally manufactured by the trademark holders. CBP import specialists examined samples and determined the items to be counterfeit.
“CBP has an exceptional team of officers and import specialists that are experts in identifying counterfeit goods,” said Miami International Airport Port Director Christopher Maston. “They work closely with the private industry to identify intellectual property infringement.”
In Fiscal Year 2014, CBP made more than 23,000 seizures of counterfeit goods, which, if genuine, would have an estimated total MSRP value of $1.2 billion. For more information on CBP’s enforcement of intellectual property rights, please click here: Priority Trade Issue: Intellectual Property Rights. Information on suspect shipments or parties may be submitted to CPB through e-Allegations.
In Florida, CBP facilitates travel and trade and secures over 1,200 miles of the coastal border. Find out more and get real-time updates at @CBPFlorida on Twitter.
Destroying Certain Imported Drugs: A New Rule to Protect Patients
U.S. Food & Drug Administration
Recently, FDA published the final rule implementing section 708 of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA). This new rule, which will take effect on October 15, 2015, provides FDA with an administrative process for the destruction of certain drugs refused admission to the United States. Why is this important? These drugs can pose a serious public health risk to consumers in the United States.
On July 9, 2012, President Obama signed FDASIA into law. Title VII of FDASIA provides FDA with important new tools to help the agency better protect the integrity of the drug supply chain. One of those new tools is in section 708, which grants FDA the authority to use an administrative procedure to destroy a drug valued at $2,500 or less (or such higher amount as the Secretary of the Treasury may set by regulation) that was refused admission into the United States.
The majority of refused drug products subject to FDA’s new destruction authority come into the United States via international mail. Some of these mail parcels may include one or more drugs that are unapproved, adulterated, and/or misbranded, including counterfeit drugs and drugs that purport to be dietary supplements.
These drugs can pose a serious public health threat to consumers in the United States because they:
◾might not contain the active ingredient that patients need for treatment of their disease;
◾might have too much or too little of an active ingredient;
◾might contain the wrong active ingredient; and/or
◾might contain toxic ingredients.
In addition, drugs that are represented and sold as dietary supplements can contain hidden or deceptively labeled active pharmaceutical ingredients, some at levels much higher than those found in FDA-approved drugs. Such products can cause harm and have been associated with serious adverse events for consumers. Other purported dietary supplements, although they may not contain harmful ingredients, are promoted to prevent or treat serious diseases but have not been proven safe and effective for that purpose.
Prior to this rule, drugs imported via an International Mail Facility (IMF) that were refused admission because they appeared to violate the law were generally sent back to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for export. There has been little deterrence to prevent sellers from sending drugs that violate the law or resending previously refused drugs into the United States via the IMFs to circumvent import regulatory systems.
In fact, some of the parcels returned by USPS were resubmitted for entry into the United States by the sender, with the sticker indicating prior refusal by FDA still attached and visible. This new rule allows FDA to better deter such importation by having an administrative process in place to destroy a refused drug. Rather than returning the drugs to the sender, these drugs will be destroyed. Compared to the volume of entries at IMFs, the agency has limited on-site resources. By deterring violative imports and re-entry attempts, this new process will allow the agency to more effectively focus its limited resources.
Under the final rule, FDA will provide the owner or consignee of the refused drug with written notice and an opportunity to appear and introduce testimony to the agency prior to the destruction. If the drug is destroyed, section 708 provides that the owner or consignee is responsible for the costs of storage and disposal of the drug. However, FDA generally does not intend to pursue recovery of storage and disposal costs against individual consumers who seek to import a drug for their own personal use that is then refused and destroyed.
By enabling FDA to destroy certain drugs, this important action will allow FDA to continue to protect and promote public health.
Three Years After Sandy: Building a More Resilient Atlantic Coast
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Three years after Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other Department of the Interior bureaus have been investing in hundreds of projects and working with partners to build a stronger Atlantic Coast. This includes projects to clean up and repair damaged refuges and parks; restore coastal marshes, wetlands and shoreline; connect and open waterways to improve flood control; and increase our scientific understanding of how these natural areas are changing. These efforts help protect local residents from the next big storm while creating jobs, engaging youth and veterans, and restoring habitat for wildlife.
Learn More at DOI Website