US Seeks More Than $22 Million From Fla. Resident for Dodging Antidumping Duties

The United States sought to recover more than $22 million from an importer who it said fraudulently dodged antidumping duties on wooden bedroom furniture from China (U.S. v. Lawrence Bivona, CIT # 24-00196).

Lawrence Bivona, a resident of Boynton Beach, Florida, was the president of LaJobi, a bedroom furniture seller that imported its products from China, the government said.

Wooden bedroom furniture from China is subject to a China-wide antidumping duty rate of 216.01%. To avoid the duties, the U.S. claimed, Bivona “misrepresented the manufacturer and/or exporter” of his company’s furniture in 89 entries to the U.S. between 2008 and 2011.

At one point, one of the LaJobi’s Chinese manufacturers “mistakenly used its actual name on a shipment,” so LaJobi had to pay the full AD rate, the complaint said. But the company then received about $50,000 in reimbursement of those duties, “in direct contravention of the Importer’s Blanket Statement of Non-Reimbursement of Antidumping Duties, signed by Mr. Bivona, which explicitly prohibited such practices,” it said.

The error, however, meant that Bivona “undisputedly” knew that LaJobi was dodging AD, it said. Regardless, he took no action to investigate the issue, it said, and he went on to important about 20 more entries fraudulently.

In a pre-penalty notice, the U.S. ordered Bivona to pay the more than $7 million he owed in unpaid duties immediately. It also proposed a penalty of $15 million for fraud or gross negligence. Nothing had been paid by the time of the complaint, it noted.

The government asked the Court of International Trade to enter judgment for the United States and order Bivona to pay the total amount of $22 million, or, alternately, $21 million if the court finds Bivona’s actions to be the result of negligence only, not gross negligence or fraud.