Founding Attorney
Transnational Matters PLLC founding attorney Davy Aaron Karkason was featured in Bloomberg Law’s August 18, 2026 Deep Dive on the Department of Justice’s intensifying crackdown on tariff evasion and customs fraud, appearing alongside counsel from O’Melveny, Hogan Lovells, and Morgan Lewis.
The article examines how the DOJ’s Trade Fraud Task Force — a joint effort with the Department of Homeland Security formed in August 2025 — has recovered more than US$1 billion through criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement, much of it through False Claims Act settlements with importers accused of misdeclaring the origin of goods from China. Recent resolutions include a US$5.15 million settlement over LED imports declared as Taiwanese and a nearly US$550 million settlement involving aluminum extrusions.
What Mr. Karkason Told Bloomberg Law
Mr. Karkason explained that while False Claims Act theories against importers are not new, the government has now “built real machinery around the issue.” He described how the DOJ–DHS partnership gives prosecutors direct access to the import declarations companies file with U.S. Customs and Border Protection — meaning the government already holds a company’s own entry forms before any investigation becomes public — and analyzed why treble damages, per-entry penalties, and today’s tariff rates often make early settlement the rational strategy for companies facing exposure.
What This Means for Importers
The enforcement environment described in the article is the one our international trade disputes practice is built for. Importers of record, customs brokers, and supply-chain principals face growing exposure on country-of-origin declarations, tariff classification, and valuation — with whistleblower incentives of 15 to 30 per cent of recoveries driving new complaints. Our firm advises on customs compliance, represents companies in trade-fraud investigations and False Claims Act matters, and litigates before the U.S. Court of International Trade.
If your company has received a CBP inquiry, a DOJ civil investigative demand, or believes its import declarations may be under scrutiny, contact our office for a confidential assessment, or call 305.417.9866.
