New London man pleads guilty to China import fraud

CONCORD - A New London man pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiring to smuggle plastic resin from China into the United States in order to evade increased tariffs on Chinese goods.

David Guimond, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to smuggle goods into the United States.

Chief U.S. District Judge Samantha D. Elliott scheduled sentencing for June 11.

"Trade laws and customs duties exist to protect American businesses, workers, and the integrity of our markets," said U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan. "Schemes that falsify country-of-origin information and evade lawful duties undermine fair competition and take money away from the American taxpayer. This office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect the public from those who attempt to circumvent our trade laws."

According to public record, in 2021 Guimond was a shareholder and Chief Operating Officer of Global Plastics and its sister company Marco Polo International, U.S.-based plastic resin distributors. In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri severely disrupted the domestic resin supply, and as a result, Global Plastics and Marco Polo International began importing resin from countries other than the United States, including China. At the time, plastic resin originating from China was subject to an additional tariff rate of 25%. Guimond instructed and agreed with other employees to input manufacturers and countries of origin other than China on paperwork submitted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in order to avoid the additional tariff rate.

Guimond also instructed an employee to repackage plastic resin from bags to boxes that were shipped through Canada to conceal the resin's country of origin. The conspiracy resulted in at least $497,249 of unpaid tariff duties to CBP. The charging statute provides a sentence of no greater than 5 years in prison, up to three (3) years of supervised release, and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.