Photo: Alamy
The Justice Department announced Tuesday that a federal task force focused on tariff evasion and customs fraud has surpassed $1 billion in criminal and civil recoveries, penalties, forfeitures and charged losses since its creation less than a year ago.
Officials unveiled the milestone during a news conference in Chicago, where prosecutors also announced charges in two jewelry import cases involving more than $930 million in merchandise.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, who leads the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, said the total includes both resolved cases and pending matters handled since the task force was established in August 2025 in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security.
According to CNN, approximately $150 million of the $1 billion total involves cases that remain pending.
“This billion-dollar milestone demonstrates that the United States and the National Fraud Enforcement Division will no longer allow the integrity of our country’s borders and markets to be compromised for illicit profit,” McDonald said.
The two newly announced cases involve allegations that gold jewelry was routed through third countries to avoid U.S. import duties.
Federal prosecutors allege that Raj and Veena Kohli, operators of California-based Surya International, imported approximately $693 million in jewelry from India and the United Arab Emirates between August 2020 and May 2024 while falsely identifying Singapore as the country of origin, avoiding more than $38 million in customs duties.
In a separate case, prosecutors charged Illinois jewelry wholesaler Narain Gulabani with importing roughly $240 million in jewelry between May 2016 and October 2021 by listing Oman or Singapore as the country of origin, allegedly evading more than $13.6 million in duties.
According to the Justice Department, the Gulabani case pushed the task force’s enforcement total above the $1 billion mark.
The department said its largest resolution to date remains a $549.5 million False Claims Act settlement with Perfectus Aluminum and affiliated companies, which prosecutors alleged disguised Chinese aluminum extrusions as shipping pallets to avoid antidumping and countervailing duties.
