Kathleen Hamann Quoted in Law360: “Execs Smuggled Billions in Goods to Skirt Duties, Feds Say”

Excerpted from the May 28, 2025 edition of Law360

Two California shipping company executives have received millions of dollars in “illicit proceeds” from a long-time scheme involving smuggling “billions of dollars" worth of goods from the U.S. into Mexico … using bogus documents, shell companies, bribes to public officials, and kickbacks to drug cartels.”

While the head of DOJ’s Criminal Division indicated that “tariff and customs fraud were among the department’s enforcement priorities,” some legal experts have indicated that the current administration’s tariffs may “boost the risk of such trade crime.”

Pierce Atwood partner Kathleen Hamann, who previously worked for the Justice Department and U.S. Department of State, stated that she expects to see an increase in trade crime due to tariffs, “as the financial incentives for misconduct are much greater now.

"And while federal trade enforcement authorities say they will be policing this area heavily, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the U.S. Customers and Border Protection were already struggling under heavy workloads. The latest budget bill allocates billions of dollars for border and immigration, but much of that is specifically for immigration enforcement.”

Kate added, “I’m sure anything caught at the border and other quick hits (false statements to CBP, etc.) will be prosecuted aggressively, and overall enforcement numbers will rise. However, complex investigations of broader networks or more sophisticated operations, which require more resources and take longer to investigate, are going to be more challenging.”

The complete article by Bonnie Eslinger can be found in the May 28, 2025 edition of Law360.