FDA Debars Texas Man From Importing After Honey Smuggling Conviction
The Food and Drug Administration issued an order barring a honey broker from importing food into the U.S. for four years, following the Texas man’s conviction for smuggling transshipped Chinese honey (here). Jun Yang owned and ran National Honey, Inc., which did business as National Commodities Company, acting as the middleman between foreign honey suppliers and U.S. customers. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2013 for falsely declaring honey he sourced from China was actually imported from Malaysia and India in an effort to evade antidumping duties (see 13111809).
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According to the FDA, Yang admitted that between 2009 and 2012 he sold 778 container loads of transshipped Chinese honey valued at $22,864,153, causing a loss in revenue to the U.S. government of as much as $37,991,375. Yang had his suppliers mislabel the country of origin of the honey, and falsified entry documentation, including bills of lading, invoices, packing lists, and country of origin certificates. Yang also attempted to have lab results destroyed that showed the antibiotic chloramphenicol was present in some of the honey, said FDA.