Michigan broker pleads guilty to false export filings

Michigan resident Lip Bor Ng, also known as Paul Wu, has pleaded guilty before Judge Mark A. Goldsmith to a one-count conspiracy information, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and circulated by the Seattle-based Basel Action Network (BAN).

 

Ng is charged with conspiring with others to knowingly submit false and misleading export information to the United States, to fraudulently and knowingly export electronic scrap in violation of United States law and to export hazardous waste without filing a notification of intent to export with the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). 

 

According to the charges, Ng submitted fraudulent export information to the Automated Export System, an electronic database maintained by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, on two occasions in 2011. He falsely declared the commodities as plastic and metal scrap, when, in fact, they contained various types of used electronics and computer components, including cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors. 

 

Anyone who exports unusable CRT monitors must file a notification of intent to export the material and also must receive permission from the receiving country, in this case, China and Hong Kong, to allow for the import into that country. Ng allegedly did not file the appropriate notification or receive permission from China and Hong Kong to export the CRT monitors, according to the DOJ news release. 

 

Ng faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for July 14, 2015. 

 

The EPA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.