The figure includes money recovered through criminal and civil cases, including penalties, settlements, restitution, asset forfeitures and losses alleged in pending cases, according to the task force. Only $150 million of that total is tied to pending cases. The news was shared exclusively with CNN.
The Trump administration has made trade enforcement a central part of its broader effort to increase tariff collections and crack down on companies accused of circumventing US trade rules.
The task force, led by the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security, was established just as President Donald Trump's delayed "Liberation Day" tariffs took effect, with rates as high as 50% on goods from certain countries. The Supreme Court later ruled the president lacked sufficient authority to impose the tariffs.
The steep tariff rates gave importers a greater financial incentive to reduce their duty bills - sometimes through legal strategies, such as adjusting products to qualify for different tariff classifications or using customs-regulated warehouses that allow companies to delay payments.
But it may have also pushed more importers to turn to illegal schemes, too.
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A Goldman Sachs analysis last year estimated tariff evasion could eventually affect more than $200 billion in US imports and reduce tariff revenue by roughly $40 billion over the long term. The economists identified misreporting the value of goods, falsifying countries of origin and routing shipments through third countries with lower tariffs as among the most likely methods of evasion.
There are hints of possible tariff evasion in discrepancies between the value of imports the United States has reported for countries and the value that other countries reported they exported to the US during a given time, the economists said.
The analysis also noted that the impact could be smaller if the administration's efforts to curb evasion proved effective.
The case that pushed the task force over the $1 billion threshold was an American jewelry importer charged with falsely declaring the country of origin and rerouting imported gold pieces through a country with a lower tariff rate.
The charges filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois allege the jewelry, which had an estimated total value of more than approximately $240 million, was associated with $13.6 million in missing tariff revenue.
"The Department's focus remains constant: if you misclassify goods or falsify origins to evade any lawful duty, regardless of when those duties were enacted or evolve over time, we will investigate and prosecute you," Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, who heads the task force, said in a statement to CNN. "Our mom and pop shops are priced out and go out of business. That is a core issue we are focused on. That American businesses are in a fair fight."
McDonald spoke in the Chicago suburb of Bensenville Tuesday.
Boxes upon boxes of seized product sit inside a non-descript warehouse near O'Hare airport. It's brought in for secondary inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when there is a suspicion the importers may be using deceptive measures to avoid paying tariffs or otherwise trying to circumvent the country's trade laws.
"These are all FDA violations that you see on these tables. Vapes are not allowed in for certain flavors," said Salvatore Ingrassia, executive director of field operations for trade and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
The single largest source of recoveries does not come from the illegal products caught on entry, but rather from a nearly $550 million legal settlement with an aluminum company out of California that for years lied on customs forms to present their Chinese products as finished merchandise that was not subject to duties. While the settlement was only recently finalized, the government secured its conviction against Perfectus Aluminum nearly five years ago.
"That case is one example of many large and small that are both in the works and that have been brought to fruition at record pace in the last 10 months," McDonald said.
He acknowledged the key role that whistleblowers play in going after these cases, encouraging others to come forward when credible allegations of fraud arise.
ABC Chicago affiliate WLS' Michelle Gallardo contributed to this report.
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