Indonesian Jewelry Firm and Executives Charged in $86 Million U.S. Tariff Evasion Scheme

Federal complaint alleges UBS Gold and associates falsely routed $1.2 billion in jewelry through Jordan to bypass duties on imports, including shipments to New Jersey.

Federal prosecutors have charged an Indonesian jewelry company and three of its executives in an alleged scheme to fraudulently avoid more than $86 million in U.S. customs duties and tariffs on over $1.2 billion in jewelry imported into the United States, Acting U.S. Attorney and Special Attorney Alina Habba announced.

The defendants include PT Untung Bersama Sejahtera—also known as “UBS Gold”—along with co-owner Michael Yahya of Indonesia, senior account executive Icha Anastasia, 37, of Surabaya, Indonesia, and employee Claudio Fogale, 51, of Mussolente, Italy. Anastasia and Fogale were arrested and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge James B. Clark, III, in Newark federal court on November 12, 2025. They were ordered detained. Yahya remains at large in Indonesia.

“Perpetrating a years-long scheme to evade paying millions of dollars of customs duties and tariffs is a serious criminal offense. Michael Yahya, Icha Anastasia, Claudio Fogale, and others are alleged to have used a foreign company to import over $1.2 billion of jewelry and illegally defraud the United States out of more than $86 million in customs duties and tariffs,” stated Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan, IRS Criminal Investigation, Newark Field Office.

According to the federal complaint, the scheme spanned multiple years and involved a series of deceptive practices to evade lawful U.S. import taxes following changes in trade law. UBS Gold, headquartered in Indonesia, is a major global exporter of jewelry, including to customers in New Jersey and other parts of the United States.

Until late 2020, Indonesian exports benefitted from duty-free access to the U.S. under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a federal trade program. After GSP expired on December 31, 2020, jewelry imports from Indonesia became subject to new duties. Prosecutors allege that UBS Gold and its executives began routing jewelry through Jordan—which maintained a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.—and falsely claimed the items were manufactured there to avoid paying the applicable duties.

When additional tariffs were imposed in 2025 on goods from multiple countries, including Indonesia and Jordan, the defendants allegedly shifted tactics. According to the complaint, they began exporting scrap gold from the United States to Jordan under false pretenses, claiming it was U.S.-origin gold jewelry that required assembly. The gold was allegedly exchanged for UBS Gold jewelry manufactured in Indonesia, which was then shipped from Jordan to the U.S. with fraudulent declarations that it was U.S.-made, avoiding the new tariffs.

From 2021 through October 2025, the U.S. government alleges the conspirators avoided over $86.4 million in tariffs and duties on jewelry shipments by misrepresenting the products’ country of origin.

The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Individual defendants face fines of up to $250,000, while the corporate entity may be fined up to $500,000 or twice the amount of the financial gain or loss, whichever is greater.

The investigation involved the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), with support from officials at JFK International Airport in New York. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Olta Bejleri, Peter Laserna, and Marko Pesce of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.

Federal officials emphasized that the charges are allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.