Myrtle Beach furniture store accused of failing to pay on imported office chairs
A Myrtle Beach furniture store has been accused of underpaying customs duties on imported chairs from China, according to a press release from the United States Department of Justice.
Global Office Furniture and its owner, Malcom E. Smith, are accused of violating the False Claims Act by “knowingly and improperly underpaying customs duties owed on imported office chairs,” according to the release Wednesday.
A phone number listed for the company was not answered.
The company imports and sells office furniture manufactured overseas in the People’s Republic of China.
The complaint alleges that the defendants, in coordination with a Chinese manufacturer, engaged in a scheme to fraudulently avoid or decrease the payment of customs duties owed to the U.S. for merchandise imported between 2019 and 2023. The defendants allegedly employed a double-invoicing scheme by submitting false entry summaries and invoices to U.S. Customs and Border Protection that undervalued imported office chairs, thereby reducing the duties paid on the merchandise, the release said.
The company and owner are also accused of destroying evidence of their fraudulent scheme after they were informed that the government was investigating their practices.
According to the complaint, beginning in 2018, defendants started importing office chairs from China to be marketed under Amazon’s brand, Amazon Basics. In the summer of 2019, the U.S. raised tariffs for items imported from China by 15%. Unable to absorb the additional cost of the tariffs, and Amazon’s unwillingness to raise the items’ price, the defendants conspired with the Chinese manufacture to submit false documents to avoid the U.S. tariffs, the complaint said.
