Crime & Law
Chicago’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office Named Lead Partner in New Trade Fraud Task Force
The Dirksen Courthouse is pictured in Chicago. (Capitol News Illinois)
Chicago’s federal prosecutor’s office has been chosen as a lead partner on a new task force targeting major trade fraud schemes nationwide.
Andrew Boutros, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, has announced that his office has been selected by the Department of Justice to serve as a lead prosecutorial partner on its Trade Fraud Task Force.
“Trade compliance is a key concern for not only our region’s economic security, but also that of our entire nation’s,” Boutros said in a statement. “The Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office will be strongly committed to holding parties accountable for their fraudulent schemes that undermine honest American competitors.
In a speech Monday, Cody Matthew Herche, who leads the task force, said Chicago’s prosecutor’s office would be working with DOJ attorneys as well as agents from the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency.
That task force was created, according to Boutros’ office, to “aggressively pursue” enforcement actions against parties seeking to evade federal customs laws and smugglers who seek to import prohibited goods into the U.S.
Specifically, Boutros’ office said the task force will target those who attempt to illegally import “below-market, industry-destabilizing goods” without paying duties and those who smuggle prohibited items that violate public health, safety, intellectual property rights and national security laws.
Boutros, who was sworn in as Chicago's new U.S. attorney last year, said he previously worked with the Department of Homeland Security on a series of trade fraud prosecutions — the “Honeygate” case, which became known as the largest case of food fraud in U.S. history — he said helped set the groundwork for the new task force.
“I take great pride in knowing that we were the architects of this enforcement area and that we were decades ahead of our time,” he said in a statement. “It is also deeply satisfying that the vision we had for this enforcement area nearly 20 years ago has now been adopted at the very highest levels of the Department and is being implemented across the whole of government.”
