A downtown Los Angeles company and two executives are facing multi-million-dollar fines and jail time for avoiding the payment of customs duties and taxes.

C’est Toi Jeans Inc., based in the Fashion District downtown, "avoid[ed] the payment of more than $8 million in customs duties on imported clothing" and "laundered money and failed to report on tax returns more than $17 million derived from cash transactions," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

At least some of those cash transactions involved "bulk cash that was derived from drug trafficking as payment for customer invoices," prosecutors added. It's unclear where the money came from, but it wasn't properly reported to authorities.

As a result, CTJ President Si Oh Rhew was sentenced to eight years and seven months

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