The Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken legal action against a company executive for allegedly evading U.S. tariffs on imported Chinese solar panels. The corporation in question, Ecosolargy, imported solar panels into the United States and from 2014 to 2018, they imported Chinese products.
According to the complaint, Ecosolargy executive Paul Bakhoum is accused of making false statements to customs officials between 2014 and 2018 in order to avoid tariffs that were meant to counter the Chinese regime’s trade practices of oversupply and dumping. Examples provided in the complaint include misclassifying solar cells as LED lights to evade antidumping duties and falsely identifying the country of origin as Turkey instead of China.
The complaint states that Ecosolargy, through Mr. Bakhoum, repeatedly failed to correctly classify merchandise and evaded duties by undervaluing it while also failing to identify the antidumping and countervailing duties owed.
The DOJ is seeking $300,000 in lost revenue recovery for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in import duties along with nearly $800,000 in civil penalties.
Susan Thomas, Executive Director of CBP’s Cargo and Conveyance Security Office of Field Operations, emphasized that these civil penalties should serve as a warning against those who attempt to harm the economy or American businesses.
In May 2022, CBP fined Bakhoum $284,000 for gross negligence in classifying imports. Additionally, a penalty exceeding $989,000 was proposed but did not reach Bakhoum due to Ecosolargy having already relocated. A subsequent attempt was returned before reaching CBP until finally reaching Bakhoum in June 2022 when he executed a statute of limitations waiver as requested by CBP. However, this waiver expired on October 9th.
Accordingly with the complaint filed by DOJ against him,Bakhoum has not paid any part of his bill or penalties yet.