The United States Department of Justice is seeking around $290 million in unpaid tariffs and fraud penalties from a building materials importer in California and its CEO. The federal government accuses the defendants of orchestrating a tax evasion scheme to avoid tariffs imposed by the United States on Chinese-made kitchen cabinets, countertops, and tiles.
The civil complaint was filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade on September 28 and made public on October 7. It alleges that Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. and its CEO Xin Mian Pan facilitated the transfer of Chinese goods through Malaysia, undervalued the goods during customs declaration, and misclassified the products to lower import tariffs.
The case involves 503 customs declaration records from September 2018 to August 2023. The government is seeking to recover about $67.9 million in unpaid tariffs, $222.5 million in fraud penalties, plus interest.
During an inspection of a shipment by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), it was found that stone slabs labeled as “Made in China” were declared as imports from Malaysia.
Inspectors also discovered that the packaging boxes of cabinets had Uni-Tile & Marble Inc.’s business address, but the customs documents listed Green Mountains Trading as the importer and consignee, which the government alleges to be a shell company.
In March 2022, CBP issued an investigation notice regarding the import of cabinets by Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. The government alleges that around that time, the names on the import documents began to be replaced with shell companies instead of Uni-Tile & Marble Inc.
According to the complaint, Xin Mian Pan and Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. used five registered shell companies in the U.S. to import Chinese goods, involving about 130 customs declaration records and one unsuccessful import declaration. The government accuses these companies of concealing the involvement of Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. and aiding in evading import tariffs.
One of these shell companies, Green Mountains Trading, has its registered address in a residential area in the outskirts of Denver. The company appeared as an importer in 19 customs declaration records and one unsuccessful import.
In the shipment inspected by CBP, the customs documents classified the stone slabs as “Articles of Glass,” but laboratory testing revealed that the samples were primarily quartz, which incurs higher import tariffs than glass products.
Two other companies – Jos Materials in Colorado and Uncle John Granite and Marble in California – are suspected of using stolen identity information for registration. These companies appeared in 50 and 24 customs declaration records, respectively.
In February 2023, during an inspection of goods declared for import by Jos Materials, CBP found packaging boxes indicating Uni-Tile & Marble Inc.’s address in Hayward, California. Subsequent surveillance confirmed that this shipment did indeed go to Uni-Tile & Marble Inc.
The government also pointed out discrepancies between the declared value of goods and the internal business records of Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. For example, one declaration valued the goods at $38,730, while Uni-Tile’s container records showed a value of $91,213. The complaint also noted that some quartz products were not correctly declared.
In December 2021, CBP started an investigation into Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. and five other U.S. importers for allegedly using Malaysia as a transit point for Chinese wooden cabinets to evade tariffs. By October 2022, these six importers were found to have circumvented anti-dumping and countervailing duties. This administrative inquiry is separate from the recent civil fraud charges filed at the U.S. Court of International Trade.
This new civil lawsuit comes after another federal criminal case, which was made public in December 2025.
In that case, federal prosecutors charged Xin Mian Pan, Uni-Tile & Marble Inc., customs broker Hua Liang “Nolan” Xie, Chinese national Jinhua “Johnson” Wang, and three other companies with participating in a scheme involving about 520 batches of goods and evading over $109 million in customs duties.
The related criminal charges include conspiracy, wire fraud, smuggling, and customs violations. Xin Mian Pan and his two companies – Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. and Uni-Stone & Cabinet – also face international money laundering charges.
The Epoch Times reached out to legal representatives of Xin Mian Pan and Uni-Tile & Marble Inc. for comment and inquired with the Department of Justice about the different amounts involved in the two cases and the details of the criminal proceedings. At the time of deadline, there was no response from either party.