[co-author: Joseph Ryan]
AT A GLANCE
On August 29, 2025, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) launched a cross-agency Trade Fraud Task Force (the “Task Force”) to pursue greater enforcement against importers, foreign manufacturers, and other parties that seek to evade tariffs and other duties. The Task Force will be a coordinated effort within DOJ and DHS, leveraging personnel from within both the Civil and Criminal divisions of DOJ, to aggressively combat tariff evasion and efforts to smuggle prohibited goods into the United States.
BACKGROUND
In announcing the Task Force, DOJ highlighted how its creation builds upon the priorities laid out in the Trump Administration’s “America First Trade Policy” issued on Inauguration Day. As detailed further in our January Legal Update, the policy mandates a sweeping review of current US trade and economic policies. Since then, there have been significant changes to US trade policy including the imposition of a wide range of “Reciprocal Tariffs” announced simultaneously on April 2, 2025 (later amended).
Enforcement of tariffs and other duties has been a focus of the Trump Administration via both civil and criminal means. In a memo issued on May 12, 2025, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti described DOJ’s white-collar crime enforcement priorities to include “[t]rade and customs fraud, including tariff evasion.” From a civil enforcement perspective, DOJ has signaled that it would aggressively pursue customs fraud by using the False Claims Act. That strategy has been validated by a recent Ninth Circuit ruling affirming a nearly $30 million judgment in a qui tam case brought by a domestic manufacturer—represented by Mayer Brown—against an importer of record that was held liable for evading antidumping duties.
The Task Force’s mandate is also consistent with Executive Order 14243, which focused on “promoting inter-agency data sharing” and “eliminating bureaucratic duplication and inefficiency.” In line with that inter-agency approach, the Task Force will “work closely with its law enforcement partners at the Department of Homeland Security, specifically U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, to identify and combat trade fraud that threatens our economic and national security interests.”
Notably, DOJ’s announcement encouraged “referrals and cooperation” from domestic industries and invited whistleblowers to use the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act to alert the government to credible allegations of fraud. The Task Force announcement closed by urging “all importers and their agents to conduct thorough audits of their importing practices and voluntarily self-disclose and remediate unlawful behavior . . . .”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The Task Force stands as another example of the ongoing focus of the Trump Administration on international trade and the enforcement of tariffs. Importers should continue to carefully adhere to existing compliance policies and procedures or develop more robust ones around avoiding customs fraud, including those concerning country of origin classification. Notably, DOJ’s Task Force announcement put in a plug for whistleblowers to come forward to flag fraud “that threatens our markets and the livelihoods of American workers and their families.” In light of DOJ’s recently unveiled Corporate Whistleblower Program, and the government’s reliance on qui tam actions in this space, businesses should pay close attention to internal complaints so as to manage whistleblower risks before they ripen into reports to DOJ, including by conducting targeted internal investigations.
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