Bellevue Businessman Sentenced in Laundered Honey Case

Chung Po Liu, 70, of Bellevue will face prison time after a guilty plea in connection with illegally hiding the origin of imported honey, which enabled him to avoid $2.9 million in import fees, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Liu was sentenced today (Dec. 20) in U.S. District Court in Seattle to one year and a day in prison, and six months of home detention as part of a year of supervised release, and $400,000 in restitution for counterfeit honey imports, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

In August, Liu pleaded guilty to federal charges of entry of goods by means of false statements and introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Liu admitted to importing 22 shipments of honey from Changge Jixiang Bee Products Company Limited, a honey factory in Henan, China, between 2005 and 2008. The honey was shipped to the United States through the Philippines and Thailand and labeled as having come from those countries, which enabled him to evade duties on Chinese honey imports, according to ICE.

In April 2008, federal authorities seized several of Liu's honey shipments at the Port of Seattle, a Seattle warehouse and a honey processing plant in Sultan, according to ICE. Tests found that the honey also contained the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin, which is banned from the U.S. food supply, according to a September press release from ICE.

Through the honey laundering scheme, Liu avoided paying $2.9 million in import duties and made $200,000 in gross profit, according to the Department of Justice. The fine, determined under the plea agreement, is twice the profit that he made from the scheme.

Liu is a corporate officer and former president of Rainier Cascade, an import company, and is the president of Evergreen Produce, Inc., a business that sells and transports honey imported by Rainier Cascade, according to ICE. The investigation of Liu was carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Port of Seattle Police Department and Customs and Border Protection.