We’ve previously blogged about some of the new legal and compliance risks that companies face as a result of the Trump administration’s tariff regime. That blog highlighted a DOJ memo stating that its policies on white collar crime identified “trade and customs fraudsters, including those who commit tariff evasion” as a key threat to national security. This Blank Rome memo says that the DOJ is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to tariff enforcement. Here’s the intro:

The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has announced a significant realignment of resources that will fundamentally reshape criminal enforcement of international trade rules. By combining senior prosecutors from its Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit (“MIMF”) with attorneys reassigned from the soon-to-be-defunct Consumer Protection Branch, DOJ is forging a newly branded “Market-, Government-, and Consumer-Fraud Unit” with a sharpened mandate: focus on customs fraud and tariff evasion.

This initiative—unveiled in speeches, internal memoranda, and follow-on press coverage—signals that trade and customs violations, once largely the province of civil enforcement by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) or DOJ’s Civil Fraud Section, will now also sit squarely on the DOJ’s criminal docket.

The memo says that the DOJ’s action can be expected to result in, among other things, acceleration of investigations, criminalization of historically civil misconduct, heightened prosecutorial interest due to the national security framing of cases, and broader asset seizure and forfeiture efforts.

– John Jenkins