Chinese billionaire faces charges in $1.8-billion scheme to smuggle aluminum through L.A.
Source: LA Times
A Chinese billionaire and the company he founded were accused of hatching a scheme to avoid paying $1.8 billion in tariffs by disguising “huge amounts” of aluminum as pallets and smuggling the material into the United States, according to a federal indictment unsealed late Tuesday.
China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd., Asia’s largest aluminum extrusion company, and Zhongtian Liu, 55, former president and chairman, are also accused of engineering bogus sales of the aluminum to related entities to inflate the company’s revenues and deceive investors, authorities announced.
“The aluminum sold to United States-based companies controlled by Liu were simply aluminum extrusions that were spot-welded together to make them appear to be functional pallets, which would be finished goods not subject to the duties,” according to the indictment. “In reality, there were no customers for the 2.2 million pallets imported by the Liu-controlled companies between 2011 and 2014, and no pallets were ever sold,” the U.S. attorney said in a statement.
Authorities added that the aluminum was shipped through Southern California ports and stockpiled in local warehouses that were owned by companies under Liu’s control.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-31/zhongwang-holdings-aluminum-smuggling-indictment
This is a weird one.
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