Boise Cascade Admits Role in Illegal Timber Scheme, Hit With $6.3 Million Fine

Boise Cascade Co. has pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Lacey Act and agreed to pay more than $6.3 million for its role in a scheme involving illegally imported plywood, federal authorities announced.

The company was sentenced to pay $6,382,000—twice the profits it earned from the illegal wood—and must implement a compliance plan as part of the resolution. The case marks the third criminal enforcement action tied to a broader duty-evasion scheme involving imported timber.

Prosecutors said Boise Cascade, a publicly traded company with a distribution center in Pompano Beach, Florida, purchased millions of dollars’ worth of hardwood plywood from Horizon Plywood between 2018 and 2021. The materials were illegally imported from China through a scheme designed to evade anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

“As I made clear at last week’s TIMBER Working Group Roundtable event hosted by ENRD, we must thwart efforts of foreign bad actors who engage in illegal timber mining to finance other illicit and dangerous activities,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. “Boise Cascade’s guilty plea is a significant step toward ending illegal timber shipments from entering our country, thereby bolstering American security and safeguarding American citizens from threats of transnational criminal organizations.”

“Boise Cascade either knew about or was willfully blind to the illegal importation of the plywood they were purchasing from Horizon Plywood,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “This scheme defrauded taxpayers of import duties and undercut law-abiding competitors by importing and selling between $25 million and $65 million worth of plywood products. By purchasing these illegal imports, Boise Cascade helped perpetuate the scheme.”

According to court filings, Horizon concealed the true origin of the wood by shipping it through Malaysia and falsifying import declarations. Authorities said Boise Cascade either knew or deliberately ignored signs that the plywood had been illegally sourced.

Investigators found that even after federal agents executed a search warrant at Horizon’s South Florida warehouse in January 2021, Boise Cascade continued placing orders, purchasing additional birch plywood shipments in the weeks that followed.

“Trade fraud is not a paperwork violation. It is theft from the American taxpayer and an attack on lawful American commerce,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “Boise Cascade knowingly profited from illegally imported timber and helped sustain a scheme designed to evade millions in duties owed to the United States. Today’s guilty plea and sentence make clear that companies that turn a blind eye to fraud in pursuit of profit will be held accountable. Our Office will continue working with our law enforcement partners to protect honest businesses, American markets, and the integrity of our trade system.”

The scheme involved between $25 million and $65 million worth of plywood, depriving the U.S. government of import duties and undercutting competitors who followed trade laws, officials said.

Horizon’s principals and an employee have already been sentenced in connection with the case.

Steel Giant Cleveland-Cliffs to Spend $12M on Toxic Cleanup at Ohio Plant After Federal Settlement

Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corporation has agreed to spend at least $12 million to address hazardous waste contamination at its massive Middletown, Ohio, steel facility under a proposed federal settlement, the Justice Department announced.

The agreement, filed in U.S. District Court, requires the company to carry out long-term environmental cleanup measures at the 2,600-acre Middletown Works site, which has been in operation for more than a century. The corrective actions are mandated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a federal law governing hazardous waste.

Federal officials said the cleanup will initially focus on two closed landfills at the site that historically received industrial waste, including sludge from wastewater treatment and steel production, as well as slag. Additional remediation will target other areas of the facility, including production and slag-processing zones, to reduce risks to human health and the environment.

The settlement resolves long-running litigation involving the plant’s former owner, AK Steel Corporation, which had previously agreed to partial cleanup efforts and environmental investigations. Cleveland-Cliffs, which later acquired the facility, will now be responsible for implementing further corrective measures once approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA officials said the agreement is designed to ensure a comprehensive cleanup while allowing the steel plant to continue operating. The agency will oversee the work and require financial assurances to guarantee the cleanup is completed.

The proposed consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period before it can be finalized.

The Middletown Works facility has operated since 1901 and is one of the region’s largest industrial sites. Federal authorities said the agreement is intended to ensure that the company—not taxpayers—bears the cost of addressing decades of hazardous waste contamination.

$668 Million Deal Reached to Clean Up Toxic Seattle Waterway

Federal and state officials have reached a proposed $668 million settlement agreement aimed at advancing the long-delayed cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site in the Seattle area, authorities announced Thursday.

The agreement, reached by the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Washington, involves more than 100 responsible parties tied to contamination in the five-mile industrial waterway. Cleanup work is expected to take at least 10 years.

Under the settlement, the Lower Duwamish Waterway Group — consisting of Boeing, the City of Seattle and King County — agreed to design and carry out EPA’s selected cleanup plan for the in-water portion of the site.

“The Duwamish is a vital asset to Seattle and the surrounding community. By lodging this settlement with the court today and seeking public comment, we take a big step toward restoring the Lower Duwamish,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Justin Heminger of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“This settlement finally ensures full-scale cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway,” said Assistant Administrator Jeffrey A. Hall of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “The cost-sharing agreement resulting from negotiations among many parties shows that this Administration will make good on its promise to expedite cleanup of hazardous pollutants while ensuring responsible parties are held accountable and the public is not left with the bill for the cleanup.”

The plan requires dredging, capping and additional remediation measures targeting the most heavily contaminated sections of the waterway. The Lower Duwamish Waterway Group will receive approximately $130 million from other responsible parties and about $140 million from federal agencies to help finance the project. EPA Region 10 Administrator Emma Pokon said the cleanup is intended to improve public health, support safer fishing, protect wildlife and strengthen Seattle’s industrial corridor.

The Lower Duwamish Waterway, Seattle’s only river, has served as a major industrial corridor since the early 1900s. Industries operating along the waterway have included airplane manufacturing, timber operations, steel mills, marine construction and chemical production.

According to EPA, industrial discharges, sewage systems and stormwater runoff contaminated sediment in the waterway with 41 hazardous substances, including polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins and furans.

EPA Region 10 Administrator Emma Pokon said, “Cleaning up this waterway will enhance residents’ use, support safer fishing, protect wildlife, and foster a vibrant industrial core in the heart of Seattle.”

The settlement was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and remains subject to a 30-day public comment period and court approval.