Clothing Wholesaler Ordered to Pay Nearly $10.4 Million for Violating U.S. Drug Trafficking Sanctions and for Customs Fraud

LOS ANGELES – A Paramount-based clothing wholesale company was fined $4 million, ordered to pay $6,390,781 in restitution, and placed on probation for five years for undervaluing imported garments in a scheme to avoid paying millions of dollars in customs duties and for doing business with a woman linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.

Ghacham Inc., which does business under the “Platini” brand name, was sentenced by United States District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong.

In addition to imposing financial penalties, Judge Frimpong required Ghacham Inc. to create and maintain an anti-money laundering compliance and ethics program and submit to review by a third-party monitor review, who will report to the court on an annual basis.

The company pleaded guilty in December 2022 to one count of conspiracy to pass false and fraudulent papers through a customhouse and one count of conspiracy to engage in any transaction or dealing in properties of a specially designated narcotics trafficker under a statute known as the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. This is the first criminal conviction in this district under the Kingpin Act.

Mohamed Daoud Ghacham, 39, of Bell, a Ghacham Inc. executive, pleaded guilty in December 2022 to one count of conspiracy to pass false and fraudulent papers through a customhouse. He is expected to be sentenced in the coming months.

According to court documents, Ghacham Inc. imported clothing from China and submitted fraudulent invoices to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that undervalued the shipments, allowing the company to avoid paying the full amounts of tariffs owed on the imports.

At Mohamed Ghacham’s direction, Chinese suppliers would prepare two invoices for the clothing ordered by Ghacham Inc. – a true invoice, which reflected the actual price paid for the goods, and a fraudulent “customs invoice,” which reflected an understated price. Ghacham Inc. submitted the customs invoices to CBP and customs brokers to fraudulently reduce the tariffs owed on the imports, while it maintained the true invoices in its accounting records.

From July 2011 and February 2021, Ghacham Inc. and Mohamed Ghacham undervalued imported garments by more than $32 million and failed to pay approximately $6,390,792 in customs duties.

Ghacham Inc. also illegally conducted business with María Tiburcia Cazarez Pérez in violation of the Kingpin Act, which prohibits people and businesses in the United States from doing business with “Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers.” Cazarez Pérez was previously listed as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker under the Kingpin Act for her involvement in the financial network of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García and Victor Emilio Cazares Salazar, two leaders of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel. Cazares Salazar was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for drug trafficking activities in federal cases out of San Diego and New York City.

“The company flouted the Kingpin Act, doing business with member of a money laundering network used by… two of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “It cheated taxpayers out of millions, both to save itself money and to secure an unfair edge against its competition in the Southern California garment market. And it did so through a sustained, extensive effort over the course of more than a decade.”

Homeland Security Investigations and CBP investigated this matter. The U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Export Enforcement, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, and IRS Criminal Investigation provided significant assistance.

Assistant United States Attorney Alexander B. Schwab of the Corporate and Securities Fraud Strike Force prosecuted this case.

This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.