Peru – American company convicted of illegally importing timber from International

Peruvian U.S. officials were told this Friday (3) that a U.S.-based company was ordered to pay $ 200,000 to Peru for importing illegally harvested timber from the Peruvian Amazon.

Headquartered in Nevada, California-based Global Plywood & Lumber LLC pleaded guilty in Washington federal court to violating the Lacey Act and barring the timber trade from identifying its source.

“The company acknowledged that it was not careful when importing illegally sold timber from the Peruvian Amazon into the United States,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

According to the lawsuit, in August 2015, Global Plywood purchased about 1,135 cubic meters of timber from three large suppliers.

The cargo, which includes creatures from the Amazon region of Loreto, arrived on September 27, 2015 aboard the Yaku Galpa in Houston, where it was seized by customs.

Subsequent investigations revealed that about 92% of the imported trees had been illegally harvested and taken away, according to a judicial report conducted in conjunction with Peruvian authorities.

Global Plywood, which was dissolved in 2017, has admitted that it did not review forestry practices or import licenses, or verified irregularities, the prosecution said.

For this reason, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday ordered the corporate environment ministry to refund $ 200,000 with a $ 5,000 fine.

Peru was rocked in November 2017 by the Yahoo Galba scandal when NGO Global Witness revealed that large timber exporters from Amazon in Peru had shipped millions of dollars worth of goods to Mexico and the United States.