Firm Fined for Understating Imports’ Value

A Bell Gardens company that imports clothes from the Orient was fined $10,000 Friday for understating the value of jeans to avoid paying import duties. Attorneys for Darvel Inc. pleaded guilty to two felony counts, and the firm was fined by U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Carol Chase said the company lied about the value of 14,856 pairs of jeans imported from the Philippines and Hong Kong. The jeans were worth an estimated $76,000. An investigation by the U.S. Customs Service concluded the company understated the value of hundreds of other shipments between 1979 and 1983.