According to a report by Mongabay, WOB Timber, a logging company based in Hamburg, German, was fined $4 million by a Hamburg Court for illegally trading Myanmar teak, violating EU sanctions. It was revealed that WOB Timber imported teak from Myanmar by falsely declaring it as originating from Taiwan. By doing so, the company violated EU sanctions on Myanmar wood imports, enforced between 2008 and 2011. In addition, it is frequent for Myanmar exporters to exaggerate the processing level of timber to evade the Special Goods Tax and pay reduced Myanmar Customs Tariff. Consequently, private companies such as WOB Timber, that trade with state-owned Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE), benefit from these tax evasions. It was also found that WOB Timber used intermediaries in Croatia to bypass German law enforcement. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) revealed that WOB Timber paid Croatian firms to land Myanmar teak, circumventing the EU Timber Regulation.