In one of the most important recent decisions, the U.S. Court of International Trade dismissed a case filed against the CEO of his importing company that had made false statements to U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the entry documents. This Court decision has significant implications for every owner, officer, and manager of any company involved in importing merchandise into the United States.
I attended the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) meeting on February 25, 2010 in Miami. The meeting was an excellent, sometimes blunt, exchange of perspectives from Customs and the international trade community.
On February 1, 2010, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the Department's budget for fiscal year 2011 would be $56 billion. This was the first time for the Democratic Obama Administration to formally unveil its budget priorities after taking over from the Republican Bush Administration. Guess what - it's more of the same.
With all of the complexities involved in the import process, even customs brokers can make mistakes such as by providing the wrong tariff classification of the imported item to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A customs broker who makes such a mistake may become the subject of an investigation by U.S. Customs which ultimately results in a $30,000 penalty against the broker.
Bank accounts are more frequently being frozen or seized by the Federal Government for money laundering. Often, the owners of the seized bank accounts were somehow connected to shipping cargo to, receiving cargo from, or doing business with Colombia. Legitimate business persons who are falsely accused should aggressively pursue getting their money back.
You may legally carry or mail any amount of money you want into or out of the United States, but if it is more than $10,000 at one time, you better first report it to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Otherwise, you risk U.S. Customs taking it from you, and never getting it back. Why? Because the failure to report the international transportation of money is a violation of the Currency and Foreign Transaction Reporting Act.