A federal grand jury has indicted three men and two companies based in the Bay Area on charges tied to an alleged scheme to evade more than $109 million in U.S. customs duties on building products imported from China, federal prosecutors said.
The indictment names Xin Mian Pan, also known as Henry Pan, 63, of San Francisco; Hua Liang Xie, also known as Nolan Xie, 61, of South San Francisco; and Jinhua Wang, also known as Johnson Wang, 53, a Chinese national. It also charges two Bay Area companies controlled by Pan — Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. and Uni-Stone & Cabinet Inc. — and a China-based logistics company, Shenzhen Top & Profit International Forwarding Co. Ltd.
Pan was arrested Wednesday and made his initial appearance in federal court Thursday. He remains in custody and was scheduled to appear for a detention hearing Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said in a statement.
Federal prosecutors said the charges stem from a years-long effort to avoid anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties and other tariffs imposed on quartz surface products, wooden cabinets and vanities, and ceramic tiles made in China and imported into the United States.
According to the indictment, filed on Wednesday and unsealed Thursday, the defendants are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, smuggling, making false statements to customs officials, and related offenses. Pan and his two companies are also charged with international money laundering.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the alleged scheme undermined trade laws meant to protect U.S. manufacturers and workers. The indictment alleges that between September 2018 and August 2023, the defendants worked to avoid steep tariffs imposed after the U.S. Department of Commerce found that certain Chinese-made products were being sold in the United States at unfairly low prices or benefited from government subsidies.
Those duties included combined tariff rates of more than 340% on quartz products, about 250% on wooden cabinets and vanities, and nearly 690% on ceramic tiles.
Authorities said Pan controlled companies that imported the products and used several methods to avoid paying duties, including routing goods through Malaysia, using shell companies, misclassifying products and submitting false documents to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Wang and his China-based company allegedly helped move Chinese-made goods through Malaysia and falsely claimed they were manufactured there before shipping them to the Port of Oakland. Xie, a licensed customs broker, is accused of filing false customs entry documents.
In total, federal prosecutors said the scheme involved about 520 shipments and allowed the defendants to avoid paying more than $109 million in duties.
The CBP has also issued a pre-penalty notice of about $222.5 million to Pan and Uni-Tile & Marble, alleging fraudulent entry of goods.
If convicted, the defendants face potential prison sentences ranging from two to 20 years per count, depending on the charges, federal prosecutors said.
Some heavily partisan person somewhere is probably supporting the idea of not paying the Trump tariffs! But these were under Joe. Pan gets slapped with ~250M fine must have thought he would get away with it.
Ruh roh ! ! ! !
Johnson Wang?
I think we’ve found our next Governor……….
Tax evasion is a crime as old as taxation.