California Clothing Wholesaler Agrees to Plead Guilty to Customs Fraud

Ghacham, a Paramount, California-based clothing wholesale company, agreed to plead guilty to criminally undervaluing imported garments in a scheme to skirt nearly $6.4 million in customs duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced Sept. 20. The scheme was also meant to hide the company's business with a woman in Mexico who has ties to the Sinaloa drug cartel, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Ghacham -- which does business under the name Platini -- was charged with conspiracy to turn in false and fraudulent papers through a customhouse and to engage in any transaction "in properties of a specially designated narcotics trafficker" under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Company executive Mohamed Ghacham, of Bell, California, also was charged in the scheme. Both the company and the executive signed plea agreements.

The company imported clothes from China, giving CBP false invoices that undervalued the shipments. The Chinese suppliers prepared two invoices -- a true one and a fraudulent one. Platini sent in the false one to lower its tariffs while the true one was kept on the company's books, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The company faces a maximum penalty $10.5 million and five years' probation, during which it will be required to institute an anti-money laundering compliance and ethics program with an outside monitor. Mohamed Ghacham faces up to five years in prison.