(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced Tuesday that several jewelry dealers have been arrested for allegedly smuggling nearly $1 billion worth of gold jewelry into the U.S. without paying customs duties.
The U.S. has agreements with Oman and Singapore that allows jewelry made there to be imported duty-free. The three defendants recently arrested are accused of falsely declaring that their gold jewelry was from those countries, when in fact it was from India and the United Aram Emirates.
In one case, Raj Kohli and Veena Kohli—who operate the San Francisco-based importer Surya International—allegedly smuggled $693 million in gold jewelry from India and Emirates from August 2020 through May 2024. By falsely declaring that their imports were from Singapore, the Kohlis were able to evade more than $38 million in customs duties, according to the DOJ.
The two defendants were charged last month, with the case being unsealed last week.
In another case, Narain Gulabani—who owned and operated Barkha Wholesale, Inc. in Illinois—was charged last week with smuggling more than $240 million in gold jewelry into the country from May 2016 to October 2021. The DOJ said Gulabani declared that his imports were from Oman and Singapore instead of their true origin: India and the UAE.
“At Gulabani’s request, prior to exporting the gold jewelry to the United States, Omani Individual A, UAE Company A, and UAE Company B created false documentation for the gold jewelry to support a false country-of-origin designation of Oman for the gold jewelry,” the DOJ alleged in court records.
“Gulabani obtained and caused to be created false invoices listing companies located in Oman (‘the Oman Companies’) as the manufacturers of the gold jewelry obtained from India and UAE, knowing that the Oman Companies had not manufactured the gold jewelry.”
Neither the Kohlis nor Gulabani have entered pleas in their respective cases.
In a press release Tuesday, the DOJ touted the crackdown on gold smuggling as a win for the U.S. economy.
“These charges are part of a broader federal effort to combat trade fraud schemes that undermine fair competition, harm domestic industries, deprive the United States of substantial revenue, and ultimately hurt the American taxpayer,” the DOJ said.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
