A large tractor and agricultural equipment manufacturer agreed via a stipulated judgment to pay $2 million in penalties for falsely labeling wholly-imported replacement parts as “Made in the USA”. It was also agreed that the company would submit compliance reports and notices to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the next 20 years. The FTC had initiated the proceeding against the company to enforce its Made in USA Labeling Rule. This rule states that for items to be labeled as “Made in the USA”, the final assembly or processing of the good, and all significant processing that goes into the good, must occur in the United States. Further, all or virtually all ingredients or components of the good must be made and sourced in the United States.

A Florida couple were sentenced to 57 months in prison and were ordered to pay over $42 million in forfeitures, as well as reimbursing the government for over $1.6 million in storage costs, after pleading guilty to conspiring to import plywood in violation of the Lacey Act and customs laws and conspiring to sell the illegally imported plywood. An employee of theirs was also sentenced to 3 years probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine. From 2016 to 2020, the couple, via several companies set up for the purpose, imported numerous containers of plywood products and falsely declared the species, country of origin and country of harvest to avoid paying antidumping and countervailing duties that had been instituted on such products from China in 2017. Some of the plywood was shipped to Malaysia from China and re-loaded in containers to appear to be of Malaysian origin. False Lacey Act declarations were then made upon entry into the U.S.