Fraud Friday: Truckloads of cut-rag tobacco


A North Carolina man was sentenced to 6 years in prison for money laundering and filing false tax returns stemming from a scheme where he smuggled tobacco into Canada without paying federal excise duties and provincial taxes. He shipped truckloads of cut-rag tobacco, totaling 6 million pounds, to a Mohawk Nation reservation that straddles the U.S.-Canada border where it was then sent on to make contraband cigarettes. He was paid in cash and cigarettes and laundered more than $2 million in proceeds. The estimated tax loss borne by Canada was $600 million. (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/north-carolina-man-sentenced-78-months-money-laundering-and-filing-false-tax-return-tobacco)

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