From Forest To Felony: Boise Cascade’s $6.3 Million Lacey Act Plea Signals A New Front In DOJ’s Trade Fraud Crackdown

On April 27, 2026, Boise Cascade Company pleaded guilty and was sentenced for a felony violation of the Lacey Act tied to a long-running scheme to import Chinese plywood into the United States in evasion of antidumping and countervailing duties. The company was fined more than $6.3 million—twice the gross profits it illegally obtained—and was required to implement a compliance plan.

The resolution is the third federal criminal enforcement action arising from the underlying duty-evasion scheme, and it is the latest in a rapidly growing line of cases brought under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) cross-agency Trade Fraud Task Force.

For sophisticated importers, the case is a stark reminder that DOJ is now treating customs duty evasion, environmental import controls and supply chain due diligence as a single, integrated enforcement priority. It also underscores DOJ’s continued willingness to predicate criminal liability on a theory of willful blindness, holding downstream purchasers accountable for ignoring red flags about a supplier’s unlawful conduct. Coming on the heels of a new DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) working group focused on illegal timber importation, the Boise Cascade resolution signals that timber and other natural resource supply chains now sit at the center of DOJ’s coordinated trade fraud enforcement agenda.

What Happened: The Underlying Conduct

Between 2018 and 2021, Boise Cascade bought more than $30 million of wood from Horizon Plywood (Horizon). Horizon violated the Lacey Act through the submission of falsified entry documentation for hardwood and softwood plywood shipments. As one example, Horizon transshipped wood from China to Malaysia, repackaged it into new containers and then shipped it to the United States to disguise its true Chinese origin.

Boise Cascade knew or should have known that Horizon’s wood was sourced from China, and that Horizon had previously attempted to conceal its true origin. Boise Cascade also knew that Horizon was under federal investigation: in 2021, federal law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at a Horizon warehouse in Florida. Although Boise Cascade knew about the raid, it placed at least ten new orders for Horizon’s birch plywood in the two weeks following the search warrant.

In 2024, Horizon’s principals were sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $42 million in forfeitures. In addition, a Horizon employee was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.

Enforcement Context: Lacey Act Meets the Trade Fraud Task Force

DOJ’s announcement places Boise Cascade squarely within the work of the Trade Fraud Task Force, the cross-agency initiative launched on August 29, 2025 by DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “to bring robust enforcement against importers and other parties who seek to defraud the United States.” The formal participation of DOJ’s ENRD in the Task Force reflects a deliberate decision to fold environmental import statutes like the Lacey Act into DOJ’s broader tariff and customs enforcement architecture.

The Lacey Act, which prohibits the importation or sale of any illegally harvested wood or wood products in the United States and requires certain importers to file declarations, has long been a powerful enforcement tool. For example, Lumber Liquidators—the first timber company criminally convicted of charges related to importation of illegal timber—was ordered to pay more than $13 million in fines in 2016. The Boise Cascade resolution signals that, under the Task Force, the Lacey Act is now being deployed in tandem with antidumping, countervailing duty and broader customs enforcement authorities to reach downstream purchaser conduct from multiple statutory angles.

Reinforcing this trajectory, on April 17, 2026, Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. delivered remarks at the inaugural roundtable of DOJ’s new TIMBER Working Group, an ENRD-led initiative convened to coordinate federal enforcement against illegal timber importation and related trade fraud. The Associate Attorney General emphasized that, although the working group’s mandate spans illegal natural resource trafficking more broadly, its initial and most acute focus is on timber—precisely the conduct at the heart of the Boise Cascade resolution. The TIMBER Working Group’s launch, in conjunction with the Boise Cascade plea, is a clear signal that timber-related supply chains will receive sustained, coordinated scrutiny from ENRD, the Trade Fraud Task Force and their interagency partners.

Key Takeaways

• “Willful blindness” is a viable theory—and DOJ is using it. Boise Cascade pleaded guilty based on conduct that included “actions manifesting willful blindness” toward Horizon’s smuggling and false declarations, even though the underlying false statements were made by the supplier. Ignoring supplier red flags or relying on uncorroborated supplier representations can support criminal liability for downstream purchasers under the Lacey Act’s “due care” standard.
• Companies should beware of transacting with suppliers under federal investigation.  DOJ’s press release specifically highlighted that Boise Cascade placed at least 10 new orders in the two weeks after law enforcement executed a search warrant at Horizon’s warehouse. Companies that learn of law enforcement activity affecting a supplier should immediately suspend onboarding of new shipments pending diligence and, where appropriate, involve outside counsel before reordering.
• The Task Force’s reach extends to environmental import statutes. ENRD’s identification as a Task Force member, together with the Boise Cascade resolution, confirms that DOJ is pairing the Lacey Act with the Tariff Act of 1930, the False Claims Act, and Title 18 trade fraud and conspiracy provisions to address a single course of conduct. Companies that import natural resource products should expect parallel scrutiny under environmental, customs and fraud authorities.
• Expect continued cross-agency expansion. As highlighted in previous alerts, Task Force leadership has identified expanded interagency partnerships as a strategic priority. The Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Product Safety Commission, inspectors general and the Forced Labor Engagement Task Force are increasingly likely to participate in trade fraud investigations. Companies in regulated product categories should expect that customs entries can trigger collateral inquiries from these agencies, and vice versa.

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