Customs Inspector Pleads Guilty to Taking $1.7 Million in Bribes

In what U.S. Customs officials called the largest bribery scheme in the agency’s history, a customs inspector pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to accepting more than $1.7 million for allowing millions of dollars in goods to be illegally imported.

Daniel W. Ekman, 53, a senior customs inspector at the Port of Los Angeles, also pleaded guilty to charges of helping to smuggle restricted goods--including cotton clothing, jellyfish, eggs, cooking sauce and insecticide from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand--and entering false records so importers could avoid inspections and quotas. The importers had thereby avoided nearly $5 million in duties since 1987.

Customs officials insisted that such cases are rare and do not point to widespread corruption at the agency.

“It sends a chilling and sobering message,” said John H. Heinrich, director of the U.S. Customs Service in Los Angeles.

“Employees are sickened by it. They wear their customs uniforms with pride, and now that badge has been tarnished by a guy like Ekman. . . ,” Heinrich said. “I’m certainly not happy that it took us four years to discover it, but I can tell you it won’t happen again.”

Ekman, with the Customs Service since 1974, entered false information in agency computers and authorized the importing of materials that were prohibited or required to undergo inspection, said officials with the U.S. attorney’s office. Restricted items such as T-shirts from China were entered into the computer as hair dryers, authorities said.

“The controls we needed to put in place just weren’t sufficient, frankly,” Heinrich said. “That’s what we learned from this case. We were giving wide latitude and independence to our officers to do the job, and this played into the hands of someone like Ekman.”

Heinrich said the agency is developing safeguards to prevent similar incidents, including limiting inspectors’ computer access, regularly rotating inspectors and trying to generate computer reports to identify anomalies.

U.S. Atty. Terree A. Bowers said it was difficult to apprehend Ekman because he did not flash his newfound wealth. “In these cases, you usually see some change in lifestyle--luxury cars, new home, longer vacations,” Bowers said. “You did not have that aspect to this case. The funds were all maintained in his garage.”

Authorities discovered $1.2 million in cash stored in boxes in the garage of Ekman’s Whittier home last November and later turned up another $500,000 in safe deposit boxes.

Officials would not discuss the importers, many of them based in Southern California, who bribed the customs inspector. Heinrich said he hopes they will be indicted.

Ekman is scheduled to be sentenced in June and faces a maximum of 85 years in prison and a $2-million fine.