Alden Leeds, Inc. is a swimming pool and spa chemicals company based in Kearny, New Jersey. The company and its president, Mark Epstein, were recently sentenced for convictions related to customs and import violations, including an elaborate rebate scheme involving false statements to U.S. Customs and inflated payments for imported chemicals. Epstein was sentenced to serve eight months in prison, while the company received three years of probation and was ordered to pay restitution to Customs in the amount of $2.25 million.
The company had an agreement with a middleman to establish two prices for imported chlorine, one actual price and a higher invoice price used for documentation at U.S. Customs to avoid suspicions of dumping. The scheme involved using a shell corporation in Vietnam to make it appear that the chlorine was manufactured there instead of China, in order to avoid anti-dumping duties. Alden Leeds, Inc. conspired with others to make false statements to Customs about the price of the chlorine, resulting in the company having to pay fines, restitution, and forfeiture, as well as serving probation.
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