United States v. Salen

Background

An agent who handled imported goods signed a statutory declaration and was prosecuted under a suppression clause that the law requires of consignees. The dispute arose over whether that clause required the agent to disclose only things omitted from the attached paperwork (the invoice, entry/account, and bill of lading) or whether it also required disclosure of separate facts that, if told to the Collector, would have raised suspicion about the goods’ value.

Reasoning

The Court focused on the declaration’s wording and the surrounding clauses. Seven of eight listed items expressly concerned the attached documents, so the Court read the general suppression phrase in that narrower context. The opinion explained that other suspicious facts are the proper subject of sworn examinations of importers, consignees, or agents, not of the printed declaration itself. The Court warned that treating the declaration as requiring disclosure of every extraneous fact would criminalize innocent silence and leave no clear line between innocent omission and felony conduct. For those reasons, the Court limited the suppression clause to omissions or falsities in the documents tied to the entry and affirmed the lower-court judgment.

Real world impact

Import agents and merchants are made to focus on accurate invoices, entry accounts, and bills of lading to avoid felony exposure. Customs officials retain the power to investigate other suspicious facts through sworn examinations rather than by treating ordinary omissions as felonies.