U.S. Homeland Security catches Indian gold jewelry forged as Korean products

An Indian exporter has been arrested for allegedly falsely labeling Indian gold jewelry as Korean goods in order to evade U.S. import duties.

Fake jewelry made in India being exported to the United States via Korea after the country of origin forgery. [KOREA CUSTOMS SERVICE]

An Indian exporter has been arrested for allegedly falsely labeling Indian gold jewelry as Korean goods in order to evade U.S. import duties.

The man, whose identity was withheld, was arrested and indicted by the U.S.' Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) recently on charges of bringing 94,036 Indian gold items to Korea and forging their country of origin marks as Korean articles before selling them to the U.S. from 2020-21, according to the Korea Customs Service Friday.

The suspect had done that in conspiracy with two Koreans with a goal to avoid the U.S.' duty of 5.5 percent levied on Indian imports. The value of the goods came to 26.7 billion won ($20.2 million).

The Korean customs agency detected the case and sent it to the prosecution in November 2022. But the suspect refused to come under probe while staying in the U.S., prompting Seoul authorities to seek cooperation with the HSI, it added.

"There have been attempts of using Korea as a base for country of origin laundering to avoid trade barriers by advanced nations. The government will strengthen the crackdown on any such illegal acts in close cooperation with foreign investigative bodies," the agency said.

BY SEO JI-EUN, YONHAP [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]