Wooden Cabinet Importer to Pay $360K for False Declarations on Chinese Timber Imports

Washington state importer Tip the Scale, doing businesses as L & D Kitchen and Bath, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on June 14 for "making false declarations" on the "species and harvest location" of timber it used in its wooden cabinets and vanities, DOJ announced.

The company was ordered to pay $360,000 in fines and serve three years of probation, during which time it must implement a "mandatory environmental compliance plan."

Between January and May 2020, Tip the Scale imported wooden kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities from China, though it falsely declared the goods as being made of a "false species of wood harvested in Malaysia." These false statements led the company to avoid over $850,000 in customs duties, DOJ said.

Tip the Scale paid out its evaded duties ahead of sentencing. The company was charged with violating its duty of reasonable care to not make materially false statements to CBP and violating the Lacey Act, which penalizes the trading of goods in violation of laws meant ot protect plants or animals.