On August 5, 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced that a Taiwan-based, publicly traded manufacturer of light-emitting diodes and its U.S.-based subsidiary agreed to pay the United States $5.15 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA), common law, and the Tariff Act of 1930 by “knowingly failing to pay duties owed on LEDs imported from China.”
In the last year, Nebraska, Texas, and other states have passed foreign influence laws requiring disclosure of lobbying and other advocacy activities on behalf of foreign actors. Although these so-called “baby FARA” laws are modeled after their federal counterpart, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), they often lack the exemptions on which businesses and other entities have long relied, and they differ in other important respects as well. These state laws are broad enough to potentially capture transactions with foreign-owned subsidiaries operating in the U.S. that would not otherwise be subject to FARA.
On August 29, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a new Trade Fraud Task Force, which will leverage resources from DOJ’s Civil and Criminal Divisions as well as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enforce tariff and duties evasion, smuggling, and other import violations. The initiative furthers the Trump Administration’s “America First Trade Policy” announced on Inauguration Day and in Executive Order 14243, which promotes information-sharing between agencies to support the administration’s overall goals of combating waste, fraud, and abuse.