MIAMI – A Miami man on Friday pleaded guilty for his role in a conspiracy to smuggle truck tires into the United States from China with false and fraudulent invoices.
Hector Samuel Esquijerosa, 52, had been charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against Customs and Border Protection, which is in charge of collecting import duties.
The scheme resulted in a loss of revenue to the U.S. in excess of $1.9 million, according to the Department of Justice.
A sentencing hearing is set for Feb. 24 in the Southern District of Florida case. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Between September 2018 and January 2023, Esquijerosa owned and operated two Miami-based companies that imported tractor-trailer truck tires into the United States, Production Tire Company and Premier Trade Corporation.
In court, Esquijerosa admitted that he conspired with brokers, suppliers and wholesalers of truck tires in China, Canada and the United Kingdom to evade anti-dumping and countervailing duties, or tariffs, applicable to truck tires manufactured in China. His companies illegally imported into the United States and sold to customers in the Southern District of Florida and elsewhere, DOJ said.
To conceal the true origin of the imported truck tires, Esquijerosa and his co-conspirators had the Chinese-origin truck tires sent to the United States through other countries, including Canada and Malaysia, according to court documents.
Esquijerosa and his co-conspirators then would file documents to CBP that falsely and fraudulently represented that the Chinese truck tires originated in countries other than China.
In many instances, they created two sets of invoices. One falsely and fraudulently undervalued the truck tires and was presented to CBP for calculation of the appropriate duty. The second reflected the actual value of the truck tires.
Homeland Security Investigations Miami investigated the case with assistance from CBP’s Automotive and Aerospace Center of Excellence and Expertise.
