For more than a decade, the illegal trade in Burmese teak has stood as a stark example of how environmental crime, corruption and conflict intersect within global markets. Recent enforcement actions in Europe and the US mark an important shift – authorities are increasingly recognising that importing timber linked to military-controlled supply chains is not […]
EIA has welcomed the guilty pleas entered by UK luxury yacht manufacturer Sunseeker International Ltd and its US subsidiary Sunseeker USA Sales for violations of the US Lacey Act linked to the use of illegally sourced teak from Myanmar. The case marks one of the most significant US enforcement actions involving Myanmar teak since the […]
LONDON: The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has welcomed the guilty pleas entered by UK luxury yacht manufacturer Sunseeker International Ltd and its US subsidiary Sunseeker USA Sales for violations of the US Lacey Act linked to the use of illegally sourced teak from Myanmar. The case marks one of the most significant US enforcement […]
US federal prosecutors have charged UK-based luxury yacht firm Sunseeker International Ltd and its US subsidiary Sunseeker USA Sales with environmental crimes tied to the use of illegally harvested teak from Myanmar. EIA first exposed Sunseeker’s illegitimate use of Burmese teak in 2018 after our investigations found that teak which had been traded in breach […]
Last year, authorities in Vietnam indicted a total of 22 defendants for the crimes of smuggling, bribes, fraud and the abuse of public power related to the illegal trade of approximately $71 million worth of timber from January 2021 to January 2024. This case included 13,376 containers of wood veneers made from acacia, eucalyptus, rubberwood […]
In another major win for Myanmar’s forests, a penalty order of €150,000 has been issued against a Dutch firm for using illicit Myanmar teak on Jeff Bezos’ superyacht Koru. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie OM) has confirmed it reached a settlement agreement with a “Dutch yacht builder” — named as Oceanco by Dutch newspaper […]