Department of Justice

Subscribe to Department of Justice via RSS

Summary

On August 29, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the formation of a cross-agency Trade Fraud Task Force in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This initiative is designed to strengthen enforcement against importers and other parties who seek to defraud the U.S. by evading tariffs, duties, and other trade regulations. The Trade Fraud Task Force is focused on ensuring compliance with trade laws, including all applicable tariffs and duties, such as antidumping and countervailing duties, as well as Section 301 tariffs on Chinese-origin goods. The task force will leverage resources and expertise from both DOJ’s Civil and Criminal Divisions, and DHS agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Spencer Churchill, an associate based in Troutman Pepper Locke’s Washington, D.C. office, has been appointed to serve as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). In his new position, he will advise on some of the most important and complex legal questions surrounding executive power and agency action. The OLC counsels the president and executive branch agencies on the parameters of their constitutional and statutory authority, reviews all executive orders, drafts legal opinions of the attorney general, and comments on the constitutionality of pending legislation.

On August 19, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Allied Stone Inc. (Allied Stone) and its president, Jia “Jerry” Lim, agreed to pay $12.4 million in settlement to resolve allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by evading, or conspiring to evade, antidumping and countervailing duties owed on quartz surface products imported from China. Allied Stone is a Dallas-based countertop and cabinetry supplier. According to the DOJ, Allied Stone misrepresented Chinese quartz surface products as other merchandise subject to lesser duties to avoid the applicable antidumping and countervailing duties. The company also allegedly failed to declare and pay, and failed to ensure that others were declaring and paying, applicable duties owed to the U.S. on entries of its Chinese quartz surface products.

We recently wrote about a federal case here and here involving key issues related to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) authority to enforce the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT Act) against federally recognized Indian tribes and ATF’s interpretation of key sections of the PACT Act. In addition to appealing the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California’s decision, we noted that the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians (the Tribe) asked the district court to require ATF to remove it from the agency’s PACT Act noncompliant list (NCL) and prevent ATF and the other defendant, the Department of Justice from taking action against it pending its appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On July 30, the federal district court denied the Tribe’s request.

The Trump administration’s implementation of tariffs on August 7, 2025, will have profound implications for companies engaged in international supply chains. These tariffs are poised to increase business costs, affecting a wide range of industries reliant on global trade. However, the financial impact is not the only concern for businesses. With the Department of Justice (DOJ) intensifying its focus on enforcement actions related to international trade compliance, companies that attempt to evade these tariffs or fail to establish robust compliance policies and procedures may find themselves among the DOJ’s targets.

What Happened

On July 16, 49 attorneys general (AGs) announced that they joined a $202 million settlement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Gilead). Previously announced by the Department of Justice in April, the settlement resolved allegations that the company incentivized doctors to prescribe its medication through HIV speaker programs.

In 2023, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) placed Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians (Twenty-Nine Palms), a federally recognized Indian tribe that sells cigarettes on sovereign reservations in California, on the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act’s (PACT Act’s) noncompliant list (NCL). The PACT Act generally prohibits common carriers from shipping products to or from companies on the NCL. After ATF placed Twenty-Nine Palms on the NCL, the tribe sued ATF and its parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ), in federal court. This case is worth following because it involves key issues related to ATF’s authority to enforce the PACT Act against federally recognized Indian tribes and ATF’s interpretation of key sections of the PACT Act.

On April 25, Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi issued an internal memorandum to Department of Justice (DOJ) employees, changing the DOJ’s policy on obtaining information from, or records of, members of the news media. Under this new policy, the DOJ will again use compulsory legal process, such as subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants, to compel the production of information from the news media, including when investigating government leaks.

With the Trump administration’s new tariffs, some companies may be looking for ways to compensate for increased costs of imports. Companies operating in the international supply chain must be aware that any attempts to circumvent heightened duties may draw unwanted attention from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and/or whistleblowers through False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement. A recent complaint the DOJ filed in the Eastern District of California demonstrates how the DOJ and/or whistleblowers can use the FCA to pursue customs fraud.

What’s Happening?

Under the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) “Preventing Access to U.S. Sensitive Personal Data and Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern or Covered Persons” rules (the Rules), allowing access outside the United States to certain types of sensitive personal data involving “countries of concern” may be restricted or prohibited beginning on April 8.  See our previous advisory for more detail.