Lockland Company Sentenced for Failing to Report Large Cash Transactions, Trucking Safety Violations

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of Ohio
21 December 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CINCINNATI – Enson Trading LLC, which does business as Eternal Food Service, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for failing to file required IRS forms for cash transactions exceeding $10,000, and for violating Federal Motor Carrier Safety regulations.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Ryan L. Korner, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation, Thomas J. Ullom, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, and Angela L. Byers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Cincinnati Division, announced the sentence handed down today by U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Black.

According to the Statement of Facts in this case, Enson is a Lockland-based wholesale food storage facility and distributor to primarily Asian restaurants in Ohio and nine other states, and many of the company’s customers pay in cash.

Between October 2010 and June 2012, the company failed to file a federal Form 8300 for 41 cash transactions totaling more than half a million dollars. Federal laws and regulations require every person engaged in a nonfinancial trade or business that receives cash in excess of $10,000 to file the form within 15 days of receipt of the cash.

The company also conspired to continue operation after receiving an out-of-service order from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

In June 2010, FMCSA conducted a compliance review of the trucks the company used to distribute its products in Ohio and out of state and issued the company an unsatisfactory safety rating based upon critical violations of several regulations. FMCSA gave the company 60 days to address the violations or they would receive an out-of-service order.

Eight days before the company’s trucking operations were to be put out of service, the company registered and incorporated under a different name. The company did that five more times between 2010 and 2014, using the names Heng Hua, National Trucking, Eternal Trading Corporation, Aspiron and FC Logistics.

As part of its sentence, the company has been ordered to pay a $525,000 fine and forfeit $215,012.55. In July, Enson Trading, LLC manager Qing Xia Zheng entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company, which was also ordered to serve three years of probation.

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by the IRS Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General and the FBI, as well as District Criminal Chief Kenneth L. Parker, who is representing the United States in this case.