Lumber Liquidators pleads guilty, pays fine

A federal investigation related to Lumber Liquidator’s illegal timber trafficking has ended with a guilty plea and some damning statements by prosecutors.



Multiple published reports indicate the flooring retailer plead guilty to one felony and four misdemeanors and agreed to pay a $13.2 million fine. The guilty plea stems from an investigation into charges that the company imported flooring manufactured in China from timber illegally harvested from an area in eastern Russia that is home to the last 450 wild Siberian tigers and some of the fewer than 50 remaining Amur leopards.



"Lumber Liquidators' race to profit resulted in the plundering of forests and wildlife habitat that, if continued, could spell the end of the Siberian tiger," according to a statement by Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden.



According to an Associated Press report, a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement indicated that Lumber Liquidators should have known the flooring manufactured in China was made from illegally sourced Mongolian oak. However, the company failed to heed "red flags" as required by the company's own internal procedures.



The please agreement is said to be unrelated to the controversy that erupted after a CBS "60 Minutes" report exposed that some of Lumber Liquidators' laminate flooring sourced from China contained high levels of the carcinogen formaldehyde.