Brewdog flouted US laws over beer imports

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Scotland is a part of the UK.

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In May 2020, James Watt and Martin Dickie will be at the BrewDog brewery.

An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation has found that Brewdog sent multiple shipments of beer to the US in violation of US federal laws.

The staff at the brewery were put under pressure to ship beer with ingredients that weren't legally approved.

The importer said they had been deceived.

James Watt admitted in a social media post on Wednesday that he had taken shortcuts with the process.

According to the programme, staff at the Ellon brewery in Aberdeenshire knew that two of its flagship products, Elvis Juice and Jet Black Heart, contained extracts which would not be approved in the US.

The former worker said the pressure was huge. The culture was to just make it happen. It was clear to us that this was coming from the top.

We were told to ship beer to the USA despite the fact that the beers hadn't been approved.

Everyone was worried that they would be fired if they didn't do what was asked.

There is evidence that shows that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau gave false information on at least five occasions, which could have resulted in hundreds of kegs of beer being sent with incorrect labels.

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One of the beers that contained extracts would not be approved in the US.

Beer imported to the US needs to be declared and given an official label before being shipped.

The details of UK beers are given to a US importer who makes the label application on the brewery's behalf.

If the beer has any unusual ingredients, like flavourings or extracts, these need to be declared so that a special label referencing the beer's formula can be approved before it can be shipped.

Each extract needs to be deemed safe for consumption in the US before an approval is granted, and this process can take months.

US perjury laws can be used to prosecute false information.

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The beer was imported to the new US brewery by Brewdog.

The only way to ship Elvis Juice and Jet Black Heart to the US was to not declare the extracts, according to sources.

Battle Martin is a former TTB labelling specialist. A lot of people are complying with the regulations.

He said there had been a deception. Based on the number of products and the number of times this has happened, I think it warrants further investigation.

The claims are to be aired in a 60-minute documentary on Monday, January 24.

The Brewdog received a letter last week from the BBC.

Mr Watt said in a post on Wednesday that they made some mistakes with the paperwork on the first few shipments, but all taxes were paid in full.

Due to the fact that we were trying to run a growing business on one side of the Atlantic and start a new business on the other side, there were oversights.

The company self- reported the issue to the TTB, who told Brewdog there would be no further action taken.

It's not clear if the issue was reported by Brewdog at the time or after the BBC wrote to them.

The three-year statute of limitations prevented any enforcement action being taken, and in any case, it would have to have been initiated against the importer, who is legally responsible for the shipments.

Importers could lose their import licence for serious violations.

Mr Watt said that a lawyer believed the errors would not endanger an importer's licence.

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The company deceived Daniel Shelton, who imported one shipment.

Daniel Shelton said he was deceived by the company.

He said that he was misled. I believed they would tell the truth.

We didn't know what was happening and we believed what we were told.

Someone in my company was led to fabricate documents. I don't like it and I'm not happy about that.

Massachusetts-based importer MHW told the BBC that they rely on their suppliers to provide accurate information about the ingredients in their products so they can determine the required Federal compliance processes.

The Federal compliance was based on the information provided by the supplier at the time, which we believed to be accurate.