New York—According to a Wall Street Journal report, the search of Lumber Liquidators’ offices by federal agents was likely the result of a report by the non-governmental Environmental Investigation Agency. The EIA’s website describes itself as “an international campaigning organization…protecting the global climate, forests and threatened species.”
The EIA alleges that one of Lumber Liquidators’ Chinese suppliers, Xingjia, imported illegal oak and birch wood from Russia, which was then sold to Lumber Liquidators under the Virginia Mill Works brand. The EIA report says that Xingjia officials admitted to using illegal wood during discussions in which the EIA posed as buyers.