DOJ Announces New Trade Fraud Task Force, Suggesting Increased FCA Focus

On August 29, 2025, just before a holiday weekend, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the creation of a new “cross-agency” task force “to bring robust enforcement against importers and other parties who seek to defraud the United States.” The implementation of this new initiative, known as the Trade Fraud Task Force, is just the latest signal of DOJ’s increased focus on trade and customs enforcement. Notably, DOJ’s announcement includes multiple references to the use of the False Claims Act (FCA) as a key tool for trade-related enforcement.

According to the announcement, the task force will develop coordination between DOJ’s Civil and Criminal divisions, as well as U.S. Department of Homeland Security components, including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Homeland Security Investigations. Its focus will be on evasion of tariffs and other duties, as well as importation of prohibited goods into the United States. In addition to pursuing duty and penalty collection actions under the Tariff Act of 1930, the task force will pursue actions under the FCA and under Title 18’s trade fraud and conspiracy criminal provisions, where appropriate.

Particularly relevant to Qui Notes readers, the task force’s announcement specifically encourages private individuals to bring FCA qui tam actions for alleged trade fraud. It also advertises that whistleblowers can make referrals to the DOJ Criminal Division’s Corporate Whistleblower Program. Finally, it also encourages importers and their agents to review their importing practices and voluntarily self-disclose and remediate unlawful behavior consistent with certain sections of the DOJ Justice Manual.

The creation of the task force is consistent with a recent trend toward increased FCA enforcement actions focused on trade. So far this year, DOJ has reached settlements in four FCA matters related to alleged trade fraud. All four settlements related to evasion of duties on imports from China. In two of the settlements, the importer allegedly failed to correctly declare China as the country of origin and thus failed to pay required Section 301 duties on the imported goods. In the other two settlements, the alleged conduct included misrepresenting the nature of the imported products to avoid antidumping and countervailing duties. Three of those cases were initiated by a relator, while the fourth was a DOJ-initiated investigation after the importer made a voluntary self-disclosure.

The announcement suggests that DOJ’s task force will have a broad set of priorities for trade enforcement actions, including — but not limited to — the types of conduct seen in this year’s settlements. While it is likely to focus on attempts to evade tariffs, such as through misstatements regarding country of origin, tariff classification, customs valuation, or application of additional duties, DOJ suggests it will not stop there. Other conduct referenced in the announcement includes the importation of “items that violate intellectual property rights.” And DOJ also indicates that it will target situations where “America’s adversaries … benefit from the fraud.” Taken together, DOJ’s recent history of increased trade-related FCA enforcement, combined with the potential of increased enforcement both under the FCA and criminal statutes, make it important for importers to ensure that they have strong internal controls with respect to customs compliance.

The creation of this task force calls to mind potential parallels with DOJ’s Civil Cyber Fraud Initiative, announced nearly four years ago. While that initiative was somewhat slow to show results, it has since picked up speed, resulting in enforcement actions against alleged cyber deficiencies in a variety of industries. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the Trade Fraud Task Force will follow a similar trajectory. Given DOJ’s recent broad focus on trade-related enforcement, we would not be surprised to see this task force begin to make waves more rapidly than its cyber-related cousin did.

Continue to follow Qui Notes as we track all the key developments in this emerging area of the FCA.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2025 All Rights Reserved. This Blog post is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.