LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County clothing brand has agreed to plead guilty to submitting fake customs forms to skirt almost $6.4 million in tariffs and to doing business with a woman who has ties to the Sinaloa drug cartel, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Ghacham Inc. and a company executive, Mohamed Daoud Ghacham, 38, will both plead guilty to conspiracy to pass false and fraudulent papers through customs, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California.
Ghacham, who managed the Paramount company's international business affairs, submitted false documents that undervalued clothing the company imported, allowing it to avoid paying the full amount of tariffs owed, according to court documents. Chinese suppliers provided Ghacham two invoices at his request: one with the correct amount Ghacham Inc. paid for the goods, which the company kept in its bookkeeping, and a second invoice with a lower price.
