Paul S. Columbus was sentenced in Seattle...
Paul S. Columbus was sentenced in Seattle to two years in prison and fined $100,000 for smuggling 74,500 Japanese semiconductors into the United States through Canada. U.S. District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein sentenced the Californian for his Sept. 25 guilty plea to smuggling Japanese-made chips through Vancouver, B.C., to his Huntington Beach business, Columbus International. In addition to the criminal sentence, Columbus, 29, also faces the possible seizure of a total of 90,000 chips seized by federal authorities and civil penalties imposed by the U.S. Customs Service.
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