The permanent section in the National Fraud Division expands a 2025 task force and sharpens criminal enforcement of tariff evasion, customs misreporting, product safety violations and anti-forced labor breaches.
The U.S. Department of Justice has made its trade fraud crackdown permanent, creating the Global Trade Enforcement Section within the National Fraud Division on July 14 to pursue criminal cases tied to import-related fraud. The section builds on the Trade Fraud Task Force established on August 29, 2025, a joint effort with the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection that has generated more than $1 billion in recoveries, penalties and charged losses in less than a year. The unit will focus on tariff evasion, misreporting of import values, violations of product safety regulations and breaches of anti-forced labor laws, marking a sharper turn away from an enforcement model that often relied on civil penalties and administrative fines. The move fits within the America First Trade Policy framework and is likely to increase scrutiny of import-heavy supply chains, including companies bringing in mining hardware such as ASIC miners and GPU components, where customs classification, valuation and sourcing practices can carry growing legal and compliance risk.