Rotten (2018–2019): Season 1, Episode 3 - Garlic Breath - full transcript

[Suspenseful music]

[speaking in Mandarin]

[man]
"If you grow good garlic,

people will love you for it.

In fact, you can grow even fair garlic

or even rather
cosmetically-inferior garlic,

and people will still compliment you
for your pains."

[narrator] Every year, humans consume
nearly 50 billion pounds of garlic.

[man] Because garlic has gone
to something that's essential to cuisines,

it's gotten sexy.

[narrator] The spicy bulb generates
some $40 billion of global revenue a year.



It's like winning a lottery.

[narrator] And most of it comes
from one country:

China.

[in Mandarin] In today's market,
you can make a lot of money.

[narrator] Today,
this global trade is the backdrop

for a pitched battle over garlic profits.

Allegations of forced prison labor...

[man] Almost all this stuff

goes to America.

It's amazing.

It's unbelievable.

[narrator] ...accusations
that a Chinese garlic juggernaut

is scheming with an American ally...

They're big and they fight mean.



[narrator] ...and two small-time farmers
in New Mexico

who dared to take on big garlic.

[woman] If we had known what we know now,

we would never have gotten involved
to start with.

[tense orchestral music]

[insects chirping]

[birds tweeting]

[engine chugging]

[man] I consider growing your own food
almost a revolutionary act.

You're free of the very complex
social and industrial

and commercial systems that, now,

really enwrap our lives.

My name is Stanley Crawford
and I'm a farmer and writer

in Dixon, New Mexico,
northern New Mexico.

Our current operation is quite small.

We're an acre and a half
in garlic and shallots.

We sell almost exclusively
at the farmers' market.

Come on.

-[Stanley] Rosemary?
-[Rosemary] Yeah.

[narrator] Stanley Crawford
and his wife Rosemary

settled near Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1968.

[dog barking]

[Rosemary]
Is it really wet out there, Stan?

No. It's just dripping.

We grew a garden, which was the most
physical work I'd ever done.

And it kept getting bigger and bigger.

By the end of the '70s,
we were farming full-time.

When we started growing garlic
in the late '70s,

garlic was coming into fashion
in a wider sense.

[to "Money" from Cabaret]
♪ Garlic is the spice of life ♪

♪ The spice of life
The spice of life ♪

[Stanley] When Les Blank's film came out,

I think that was a good marker
for the expansion of garlic

into other culinary types.

You know,
I don't want to have just... pesto.

I mean, I want garlic.

I mean, you know, garlic.

[narrator] In the 1990s,
as The Food Network's influence grew,

more home chefs than ever before
began cooking with garlic.

Happy, happy, happy.
Garlic, garlic and more garlic.

[narrator] That's when Crawford published
a memoir of his adventures in garlic:

A Garlic Testament.

[woman]
Way back when I was a freshman in college,

I read this book called
A Garlic Testament by Stanley Crawford,

and I became really enchanted

with the way of life
described in that book.

And we actually drove up
to the Santa Fe Farmers' Market one year,

just to see Stanley Crawford,

and just to buy his garlic.

What do you think, Kristen?

Look at all the worms.

One thing with healthy soil is,
if you have worms...

You see, this is full of worms.
Worms are a good thing.

[man] We're a small organic farm,

with garlic
always having been our main crop.

[Kristen Davenport] Garlic brought us
together in a lot of ways.

I mean, we knew each other before garlic,

but garlic was what cinched it, really.

-You grew garlic.
-I grew garlic. That was cool.

Yeah!

[narrator] It was garlic that these two
farming families had in common.

And it was garlic that would
ultimately drive them apart.

[Stanley] "In an age
that has littered the planet

with permanent garbage and toxic waste,

there is much to be said
for basing a living on crops,

which by definition submit readily
to the forces of decay

and whose immortality is of another kind,

lying rather in the endless passage
through cycles of life and death."

[narrator] For years, those cycles
repeated on both New Mexico farms.

Then, in 2014,

Stanley Crawford got a surprise visit

from an out-of-town attorney and his wife.

[man] We do this on Sunday mornings.
Every Sunday morning, we have pancakes.

My name is Ted Hume.

For the last 40 years or more,

I've been practicing
international trade law.

[narrator] Part of Hume's business
was helping Chinese garlic companies

navigate US trade law.

He told Crawford that two of the most
powerful garlic companies in the world

were on the verge of taking over
the whole industry,

and he wanted to stop them.

To do that, he would need
an American garlic grower

to sign on to his cause.

[Ted] My first meeting with Stanley
was quite marvelous.

Little did I expect that he would
understand things so quickly.

[Stanley] The moment they walked in,
I thought, "I like these people."

And I also, in a short while,
said to myself, "I trust them."

[narrator] As Hume explained to Stanley,
the soaring demand for garlic in the US

had opened the door
to the world's garlic powerhouse:

China.

[Ted] China is the largest producer,
by far, of garlic,

and hence,
the lowest cost producer in the world.

[driving orchestral music]

[narrator] In fact, China grows
around 90% of all the garlic consumed

in the entire world.

[in Mandarin] These products in a can
are the domestic main sales.

Black garlic in a jumbo pack, 500 grams.

Here is a product
we just introduced to the market...

black garlic drink.

It has very nice packaging.

These are two packages of garlic
for export.

They are designed especially
for the American market.

[narrator] Most Chinese garlic
is grown here, in Shandong Province.

Shandong is one of the major
agricultural production provinces

in China.

In Shandong, you can see
the good quality of the fresh garlic.

[interviewer]
Why do you pull the garlic stems?

[in Mandarin] After pulling the stems,
the garlic heads start to grow bigger...

Now the garlic leaves are grown
and ready to sell.

[Ruopeng Wang] The garlic growers,
the farmers, earn their money steadily.

They have a relatively stabilized
percentage of income of the profit,

through growing, harvesting.

[in Mandarin] Buyers come to our house
to purchase the garlic.

[interviewer] Do you know where
the garlic buyers are selling to?

[in Mandarin] The good ones are exported,
to be processed and exported.

[man in Mandarin] he Communist party
negotiates with foreign countries.

Now the president of the party
is friendly with foreign countries.

The garlic sells well.

When the garlic sells well,
the price is high.

I have been through hard times, and now,
as an old man, I am enjoying life.

[narrator] Between 1995 and 2009,

to feed the growing demand,

the amount of garlic imported
from China to the US skyrocketed.

[man] You see, the garlic skin is purple.

And this garlic is spicy.

Spicier than pure white garlic.

[narrator] By 2010, Chinese garlic
accounted for a whopping 41%

of all garlic consumed in the US.

[Du Jiayi]
You see this garlic is a big size.

It's good.

And we can export.

[narrator] But this cheap Chinese garlic
raised the specter of "dumping":

selling a foreign product in the US
at an unfairly low price,

undercutting the domestic industry.

Every year, the Department of Commerce
conducts a review

of Chinese garlic exporters.

The companies found to be dumping
are saddled with a steep tax:

an "anti-dumping duty."

[tense music]

[narrator] Over time, one garlic company
caught Ted Hume's attention:

Harmoni International Spice, Inc.

Harmoni had offices
in China and California,

allowing them to act as both exporter
and importer of Chinese garlic.

[Ted] Harmoni is bringing in
something like $8.5 million dollars

every month, on average,

so they're running
roughly $100 million of garlic every year.

They're the largest Chinese exporters,
by far, now.

[narrator] According to Ted, the reason
for their success was troubling.

[Ted] You're finding
that they are the only company

that avoids being subject
to dumping duties

while every other Chinese garlic exporter
is subject to substantial duties.

From my perspective,
the playing field wasn't level.

[narrator] Ruopeng Wang
is a trade consultant in China

who specializes in anti-dumping cases.

He agreed to help Ted look more closely
at Harmoni's business.

[speaking Mandarin]

[narrator] Ted and Ruopeng concluded
that Harmoni was not acting alone.

We need some garlic.

Talking about Harmoni's export activities

within these several years,
a dozen years,

without paying any anti-dumping duty,

we've got to talk about
the Fresh Garlic Producers Association.

[narrator] The Fresh Garlic Producers
Association, or FGPA,

was formed to stand up for the interests
of American garlic companies

against increasing imports from China.

It was a powerful voice
for the US garlic industry.

The biggest member of the group
is a company called Christopher Ranch.

[advertising jingle music]

[Ted] Christopher Ranch
is the largest distributor,

wholesaler, marketer of garlic
in the United States.

It's the Walmart of the business.

[crowd] Three, two, one...

[cheering]

[narrator] One of the founders
of the Gilroy Garlic Festival in 1979,

Christopher Ranch had become the friendly
face of the American garlic business.

OK, come on, Luce. Luce!

Come on.

[Ted] What we found out is,

the Fresh Garlic Producers Association
is Christopher Ranch.

They reflect whatever
Christopher Ranch wants them to do.

[narrator] Ted also believed that
Christopher Ranch was using the FGPA

to exploit a gaping loophole
in the system.

It's the Department of Commerce that
reviews foreign companies for dumping.

But Commerce allows members
of the US garlic industry

to decide which exporters get reviewed.

And for many years,
the Fresh Garlic Producers Association

repeatedly took one company's name
off of the review list:

Harmoni.

Under the law, companies can pick
and choose who's going to be reviewed.

It's essentially a self-regulating system.

[narrator] And according to Ted,

the Fresh Garlic Producers Association
didn't want Harmoni reviewed for dumping,

because their most powerful member,
Christopher Ranch,

was one of the biggest buyers
of Harmoni's garlic.

Ted claims the arrangement
guaranteed Christopher Ranch

a reliable flow of cheap Chinese garlic,

that they could then sell
all across the United States.

[Ted] They were making
millions and millions of dollars

bringing in the Harmoni garlic

and never paid
any dumping duties either.

That's the concern.
That's gaming the system.

It's not that what they're doing
is illegal,

but they've avoided being in a review,

and we think that their affiliation
with the FGPA is essentially a cartel,

and it costs American jobs.

That has been our argument from day one.

[narrator] Ted and Ruopeng
say it also hurt the bottom line

of other Chinese garlic companies,

who were stuck paying
enormous anti-dumping duties.

Some of them were
Ted and Ruopeng's clients.

[Ruopeng] So year after year,

all the other Chinese exporters will have
to participate in the normal review.

Well, Harmoni did not.

Because all the US markets
of the garlic from China

were dominated by Harmoni
and Christopher Ranch.

And the other Chinese exporters
and producers,

they have no way
to ship their merchandise into the US.

This is their problem.

[narrator] To Ruopeng and Ted, the garlic
industry seemed on the brink of a takeover

by two of its biggest players:
Harmoni and Christopher Ranch.

[Ruopeng] It's better for consumers
to have more options.

They can choose to buy garlic

from whatever they would like to buy.

And of course, the competition involves
not only the price,

but also the quality of the product.

Competitive prices are favorite
to the consumers.

[narrator] So Ted and Ruopeng decided

they would file their own request
with the Department of Commerce

to review Harmoni's practices,

with the hope of forcing them
to pay anti-dumping duties.

The only option that I saw,
if we were going to address Harmoni,

would be to find somebody in the US
as a domestic interested party,

a company, a farmer or producer,

who would be willing to file
an administrative review request.

[narrator] But when Ted
looked in California,

where 89% of all US garlic is grown,

he found no takers.

[Ted] Virtually everybody
in California is connected

with a member of the FGPA,

of which the principal player
was Christopher Ranch.

You really don't want to get involved.
I mean, these guys are very big.

They're major players in this market

and Harmoni is a major,
major supplier for them.

[narrator] And that's what ultimately
brought Ted Hume to New Mexico.

[Stanley] He said he was looking
for a domestic producer of garlic

to file a request for review.

And he said, "No risks and no costs."

We are all involved
in international trade,

the moment we walk into Walmart,

the moment we walk into Dollar General.

So this is something
that we should understand.

And this garlic anti-dumping thing

was a pathway
into understanding that world.

So, I said, "Sure, sure. I'll do that."

[narrator] As it turned out,

Stanley's participation would also involve
a small token of appreciation from Ted,

in the form of a check for $50,000.

[Ted] We appreciated how much
time and effort Stan had put into this,

so it was more or less
just a kind gesture for his participation.

[Stanley]
Even without this, I would have continued,

because I think the process
is both important and interesting.

♪ I am a man ♪

♪ Of constant sorrow ♪

The big question is
what you might call "economic justice."

Because this one company
is able to import garlic

and pay no anti-dumping duty,

they can undercut
everybody in this country.

[narrator] To give their side
a little more muscle,

Ted and Stanley decided to get one more
American garlic-grower on board.

Fortunately, there was one
right up the road.

[Avrum Katz] We have a friend
who brings us garlics

from different parts of the world.

This one is called Music.

It's garlic which originated
in the Caucasus Mountains,

which is where all garlic originated.

[Kristen] Ted Hume told us
that if this review went through,

and if Avrum Katz and Stanley Crawford
were found to have standing,

to be producers of a like product,

that Harmoni would be reviewed
and then be assessed a tariff.

And this would level the playing field
for all growers.

Actually there are varieties
that originated in China.

Like, here's one that's called Lotus,

but it's really good, really tasty.

I knew them, and mainly Avrum,

as a fellow competitor
at the farmer's market.

Our stands were 50 feet apart,

and so we would always
kind of eye each other's goods

and wonder what we were charging.

But you know,
it was a cordial relationship.

I think that I started out
very much trusting Stan Crawford,

because I trusted his writing.

So, how do you want this?

[Avrum] Part of the story
was that this company Harmoni,

the big, evil, corporate giant,

was gaming the system with the FGPA.

[Kristen] Come on, guys.

Come on out.
Don't lose your buddies.

[Kristen] We definitely, in our politics
and personal belief systems,

are always on the side of the little guy.

You could characterize us as liberals,
as Bernie Sanders people.

[whooping]

[Kristen] And so we probably
fell into this a little more easily

than some other people would,
because of that underlying belief system.

One of the things I thought is that
we could be helping farmers in China, too.

If you took us and the farmers in China,

we would have the most in common,
through this whole thing,

of any of the multiple parties
who are involved in this.

[narrator] But the moral high ground
wasn't the only thing

that appealed to Avrum and Kristen.

Like small farmers everywhere,
they were strapped for cash.

Even in small organic farming,
you have to have money to make money!

If we had been able to really invest
in our farm up-front,

we could grow a lot faster.

-We could make a living.
-But just barely.

[Stanley] For a cold winter day,
it's not too bad.

It looks like, maybe, 250...

275.

[narrator] And according to them,
there was, in Stanley's pitch,

an implicit promise of a cash windfall.

In March of that year, he told us he had
received $50,000 for his participation,

and he had received a promise
of some garlic harvesting equipment,

the very stuff that we really needed
to boost our production.

-Are you guys ready to load it?
-Oh, yeah.

Oh, damn.

[narrator] Their hope was that
Ted's Chinese clients would be so grateful

to finally have an even playing field,

they might offer the New Mexico farmers
a big payout when all was said and done.

[Ted] I think we said on several occasions

that if there would be
some payout at the end,

that they would benefit,
that we would share whatever came,

along with whatever Stan would get.

-Getting cold again.
-Right.

[Kristen] We felt like Stan understood
the situation enough that we trusted him,

and that we were doing
something good in the world,

and we were going to get some money
for the infrastructure for our farm.

So, it was through those conversations
that we decided to join.

[narrator] In November of 2015,
Ted's office filed the official request

that the Department of Commerce
review Harmoni's practices.

All that was left to do was wait.

[Stanley] "See garlic
as a pretext for waiting.

It has no other way
but the long wash of time

to extract the sulfur compounds
from the soil

and to distill them
into its distinctive potion.

All garlic questions ultimately
may have to do with the passage of time,

and therefore with mortality,

and therefore with vampires,
whatever they may be."

[interviewer] So what was Harmoni's
response to the DOC review request?

Well, it was extreme.

It's unprecedented.

I remember that night, there was
two feet of new snow on the ground,

when that lawsuit landed in our driveway.

[Stanley] We were served on a Sunday
with a 75-page summons.

And I read through this and thought,
"This is crazy."

[narrator] Harmoni had launched
its counter-attack.

It was a RICO lawsuit,

as in, Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations.

[Kristen] It was scary.
It was really scary.

I mean, here we are,
we make this much income,

and we're these little farmers
living in this little town,

and suddenly,
we're being accused of racketeering.

We were blown away.
We thought, "What did we get into?"

A RICO statute brings to mind the Mafia,

you know,
something that's an illegal process.

Having practiced trade law for 40 years,

I have never seen a dumping case
that was parallel

with a RICO case filed in federal court.

[narrator] Harmoni claimed that
14 individuals and eight corporations

were all conspiring together
to bring Harmoni down.

Crawford, Katz, and Hume were on the list.

But so was one person that the New Mexico
farmers had never heard of:

Mingju Xu.

And it turned out
he had his own story to tell

about Harmoni and Christopher Ranch.

[Mingju] My name is Mingju Xu.

I'm a garlic importer,
processor and wholesaler.

My hometown is Jinxiang County
in Shandong Province, China.

Garlic growing everywhere,

and many people depend on garlic
for their living.

For the garlic industry,

the number one product is peeled garlic.

Not fresh garlic. Not the garlic bulbs.

We tried to set up a facility

to peel the garlic in America.

You know, we can buy the garlic
from every corner of the world.

And peel it here, so we can keep it fresh.

You see, very nice garlic.

We work seven days a week.

At least 12 hours per day.

Our product is good.

We should make pretty good money.

But actually,

not.

The reason is the cost.

We cannot compete with

the Chinese peeled garlic.

[narrator]
In 2015, Ming's friends in China

explained why the Chinese peeled garlic

was so much cheaper
than what he could offer.

The reason is some guy
uses prisoners to peel the garlic.

I have talked with some law professors
in China.

They told me it's illegal in China

to export the prison peeled garlic.

[narrator] In the US, it's perfectly legal

to produce goods
using American prison labor.

But as of 2016,

it's illegal to import anything
made with forced prison labor abroad.

[Mingju] But the garlic,
it's exported to America!

It's amazing. It's unbelievable.

When I heard that story,

we just wanted to make sure.

[narrator] On his next trip to China,
Mingju did just that.

[suspenseful music]

[Mingju Xu] I go to a special store.

Bought a camera.

And I went to the jail
to take a look of it.

If the officer found that camera,

definitely I would have huge trouble.

[narrator] Posing as a garlic buyer,

he found a truck driver
willing to take him into a prison

and walk him through
the prison garlic supply chain.

From the monitor, we can see those people

sitting on the big bed.

And they sit on the bed
and they peel the garlic.

They peel around 14, 15, 16 hours.

[narrator] To Mingju's eyes,
peeling garlic was clearly not a choice.

This was forced labor.

[Mingju] All the prisoners must finish
the peeling of 20 kilos of garlic.

If you cannot finish the job,

one choice is working longer time.

But you must finish it.

It's a very tough job,

to peel so much.

I have seen a guy

put the garlic to his mouth.

I asked the officer,

"Why is that guy eating the garlic?"

The officer told me
he didn't eat the garlic.

When they peel the garlic,
they put the garlic in water.

And so when they use
their nail to cut the root,

their nails get soft,
so easy to wear out.

After peeling the garlic
for such a long time,

he lost his nails.

So he used his teeth to cut off
the garlic roots,

the garlic roots, like this.

[muffled voices in Mandarin]

We see lots of guys use their teeth

to cut off the root.

When we talked with

local garlic guys,

they said there are many jails
do the same thing.

The jails in Shandong province, Hunan,

and Jiangsu, all the neighboring area.

Almost all this stuff

goes to America.

Only America wants freshly peeled garlic.

[narrator] In fact, around 60% of all
the Chinese garlic Americans consume

is pre-peeled.

Before it gets shipped to the US
it has to be packed at a processing house.

And that's where Mingju's guide
took him next.

[Mingju] Outside,
they store some of their boxes.

We all saw the boxes they use.

In the corner of the box,
there was printed the words

"HOI."

Harmoni Organic International.

[narrator] Harmoni wasn't the only company
whose name appeared to be on the boxes.

[Mingju] We see the trademark.
The golden lion.

We knew the golden lion
is a trademark of Christopher Ranch.

It's amazing.

[narrator] Mingju was convinced
that Christopher Ranch,

the biggest garlic company in America,

had been selling prison-peeled garlic
to American consumers for years.

[Mingju] In Jinxiang,
this is a public story.

Everyone knows
the prisoners peel the garlic.

[voices talking in Mandarin]

[interviewer]
Is that garlic peeled by hand?

[in Mandarin]
Usually people in prison peel them.

[in Mandarin] This garlic is peeled
at prisons in Jinxiang.

[narrator] If Mingju is right,

that's how these cloves
have been making their way

into American restaurants,
food products, and grocery stores.

We cannot compete with Christopher.

We could not compete with the Harmoni guy.

So we lost all the business.

[narrator] After Mingju
returned home to the US,

his lawyer sent a letter to Harmoni

demanding nearly $32 million
in lost profits.

Mingju also alerted
US Customs and Border Patrol

to what he had seen in prison.

If Customs found
Mingju's evidence credible,

they could shut down all imports
of Harmoni garlic immediately.

Suddenly, Harmoni was under attack
on multiple fronts.

To defend themselves,
they filed the RICO lawsuit,

declaring that all of the defendants
were conspiring against them.

Four American guys,

New Mexico farmers

and Mr. Hume, a lawyer,

we had never seen them, never met them.

Never talked to them on the phone.

I don't know why
he put all of us together.

I felt very angry, and frustrated.

I thought all this was nonsense.

They are trying to use all their forces
to defend themselves,

to avoid being reviewed.

That's the only excuse.

I'll just start the pasta.
I have to get it boiling.

-Go ahead. The tomatoes are really good.
-Yeah, they are.

-[Avrum] You need some garlic?
-[Kristen] Yes, I do need garlic.

[narrator] Over the next few months,

as everyone waited for the RICO case
to make its way through the courts,

Avrum and Kristen were getting nervous.

We went online and we started doing
a lot of research about Ted,

and Ted's clients, and Harmoni,

and we learned a lot of things
that made us really uncomfortable.

[narrator] Ted's clients
weren't just any companies.

Avrum and Kristen realized

they also happened to be
Harmoni's direct competitors.

[Kristen] We knew that Ted had been
representing some Chinese companies

for a number of years,

and we definitely were aware that...

what we were doing
would be of benefit to them also.

[narrator] According
to Harmoni's RICO case,

it was Ted's Chinese clients
who were doing the dumping.

Harmoni claimed that one of them,
a shadowy garlic businessman from Qingdao,

had orchestrated everything
from the beginning.

That he had funded the payment to Stanley

as part of a $1.6 million war chest
set up to destroy Harmoni.

[Avrum] It made us realize,

"Wow, who are these people
Ted is working for? What is going on?"

[narrator] The Qingdao businessman
was Jack Bai.

[in Mandarin] My name is Jack Bai.

I import and export agricultural products.

[speaking in Mandarin]

[in Mandarin] Harmoni sued me in court,

for using $1.6 million
to bribe the New Mexico farmers.

I am saying seriously here
that I never paid this money.

I never did this thing.

[narrator] A few years ago, Bai's company
sold a steady stream of garlic to the US.

But ever since
Harmoni took over the market,

Bai says companies like his
simply couldn't compete.

[in Mandarin]
My tax rate was much too high.

There was no profit for me.

So I quit the business.

Other companies are afraid of Harmoni.

They are afraid of its power, or the
huge alliance of its processing plants.

They are afraid of it very much.

[narrator] The great irony of it all,
to Jack Bai,

is the role
of the Fresh Garlic Producers Association.

[Jack, in Mandarin] In fact, it was FGPA

who initiated the anti-dumping duty
on garlic in the first place.

In the meantime, FGPA
is the biggest seller of Chinese garlic.

Our real competitor is not Harmoni.

It is FGPA who is behind all of this
and controls everything.

[narrator] As for the charge that he
paid off Stanley Crawford and Avrum Katz,

Bai flatly denies it.

[in Mandarin]
One of the farmers' names is Stan.

And I had dinner with him once.
That was all.

We never contacted each other afterwards.

So I never did the "support"
you were talking about.

Nobody of our company,
nobody of our clients

paid anything to the New Mexico people

to support them to file anything
against Harmoni.

No. Absolutely no.

That's bullshit.

[interviewer] Did you pay
Stanley or Avrum to join the case?

No, and I think we made it very clear

that this was a case, you know,
that we were getting involved with

that, from my perspective,

was really to deal with
the gaming part of the system.

And I think that was made clear to Stan.

I had thought it was made clear
to Avrum as well.

Keane, you could cut
some of these along here.

Why don't you just cut these?

[narrator] But to Avrum and Kristen,

something about Harmoni's allegations
rang true.

They say it was always
a pay-to-play scenario.

[Kristen] When we got involved we thought,

"Oh, we'll sign on
for this administrative review,

and then, boom,
we'll get a check for $50,000."

-Like Stan did.
-Like Stan did.

And it didn't work out that way,
obviously.

[Avrum] We have a weed whacker.

This stuff is for the goats.

Kristen's goats need...

Goats love stuff like that,
believe it or not.

Early on I kept saying,
"OK, so we're going to get paid.

Can we put it in writing,
can we make it legal?"

[narrator] Meanwhile, they say
the promised windfall only got bigger.

[Kristen] In October of that same year,

Ted Hume had begun talking to us
about all the money

that Jack Bai and Wang Ruopeng
were going to send to us soon.

The number kept getting bigger.
We were going to get $2 million--

-2.7.
-$2.7 million.

"They have all the money..."

He would say,
"They have so much money. Don't worry.

They want to invest
in American farms and farmers."

[Stanley] Avrum and Kristen
were expecting some kind of payoff.

That was not an unreasonable expectation,

but there was no promise ever made
that they would be paid.

What happened is that their expectations,
in a sense, got the best of them.

[narrator] By June of 2016,
Avrum and Kristen were feeling desperate.

[Ted] They were expressing
great concern about,

they had hardships and financial issues.

And my wife and I,
you know, accepted this,

and understood that, you know, farmers
have problems and it was not unique,

so we gave them a $5,000 check.

It was a gift.

That was very, very...

that was great.

So we said,
"We'll stick with it for a while."

[narrator] That payment to Avrum,
and the original $50,000 check to Stanley

would come back to haunt them.

[Stanley] "Numbers are forgotten.

The financial statement must
finally give way to the narrative.

With all its exceptions,
special cases, imponderables,

it must finally give way to the story,

which is perhaps the way
we arm ourselves against the next,

and always unpredictable,
turn of the cycle,

in the quixotic dare that is life."

[interviewer] What are we going to get?

To get the green garlic.

Uh, you know,

with some sunshine, it will be green.

Without any sunshine, it will be yellow.

[narrator] By September of 2016,
Harmoni was on the defensive.

Thanks to the letter that Mingju
and his attorney sent to US Customs,

one after another,
Harmoni's garlic shipments

were being detained at US ports

over concerns about forced prison labor.

We believe
the use of prisoners is immoral.

So, we just told the story.

And let society know.

To stop the prison labor

is good.

Protect the American market.

So good for American garlic growers.

For American people.

It's also good for Chinese society.

[narrator] And there was
even more bad news for Harmoni.

The Federal District Court
dismissed the RICO suit.

Harmoni was forced to pay a portion
of Mingju's attorney's fees.

The judge threw away their case,

so we win.

And Harmoni paid us $36,000.

[narrator] To Mingju,
it felt like the beginning of the end

for Harmoni and their customer,
Christopher Ranch.

This is an automatic garlic planter,
and it's fast.

[narrator] Later that year,
Avrum and Kristen

heard about some disquieting
new developments on Stanley's farm.

[Kristen] Some new equipment appeared
at Stan Crawford's farm

in the summer of 2016,

which as we mentioned,

we really, really could use
some garlic harvesting equipment.

[narrator] Some of the equipment
was paid for by Stanley,

and some of it came as a gift
from friends in China.

This is a garlic separator
that Ruopeng sent us.

The garlic bulbs get dropped in here

and are broken apart into cloves
so we can plant.

This is a peeler,
but we're not certain how it works.

This was where we started to feel
like we were being done wrong,

in that when Avrum and Stanley
had talked about it,

there was an agreement
that everything would be shared.

And if there were some things
coming from China,

they weren't being shared.

We felt very betrayed by what happened.

[narrator] So, Avrum and Kristen
made one last effort

to collect the money
they felt they had been promised.

[Ted] They said by the end
of the year they needed $25,000.

My wife and I said that
that was going to be difficult,

and we did give them, you know,
a check for $10,000.

And they said we would get
the other $15,000 as a loan

on December 15th.

December 15th came around
and all of a sudden,

"No, we can't afford it.
We can't do that.

This is just...
We can't possibly do that."

[narrator] To Avrum and Kristen,
things were suddenly perfectly clear.

This had never been about helping them.

It was always about Ted's Chinese clients,

the direct competitors to Harmoni.

[Kristen] They were really the only ones
who were going to benefit.

We were not trying
to level the playing field

for domestic garlic growers.

We were trying to level the playing field
for Ted's clients.

We weren't trying to level the field,
but trying to level their competitors.

[narrator] Feeling caught in the crossfire
between Harmoni and Ted's Chinese clients,

Avrum and Kristen pulled out
of Ted's coalition altogether.

[Kristen] We believed
that we were sort of pawns,

being used by
these two giant corporations,

who are jockeying for position,

and they are fighting over their piece
of the American market,

of the American pie.

And we had been used in that battle
and that's sort of how we saw it.

[narrator]
That's when they got a phone call.

And on the other end of the line...
was someone from Harmoni.

Over the phone, Harmoni made their case,

that in fact,
they were the victims all along,

that Ted Hume, and Ruopeng, and Jack Bai,

and Ted's other clients in China,

were the true villains, out to destroy
Harmoni for their own gain.

[Kristen]
For me, that was when I understood

we had done something wrong
that we needed to correct.

We needed to do something about it.

[narrator] So Avrum and Kristen
sent a scathing letter

to the Department of Commerce,

laying out all the sordid details
of the pay-for-play scheme as they saw it.

[soft piano and violin playing]

[narrator] Avrum and Kristen
had switched sides.

[Ted] I was very surprised
that he would submit such a letter.

You know, I was disappointed.

[Ted] You can come up here,
especially at night, and see the stars.

It's a really pretty spectacular place
to just sit.

[Stanley] Avrum was accusing Ted and I
of engineering a fraudulent scheme,

and deceiving him into believing

that he was participating
in this worthy cause

and that he would be royally compensated.

Nobody promised anything to anybody

about making money in the future
if you're doing this and that.

This is not... this is not the truth.

[narrator] According to Stanley and Ted,

it was Avrum and Kristen
who had been corrupted by cash.

[interviewer] Do you think
that they were, in essence,

paid off by Harmoni
to remove themselves from...

I do.

We don't know the rate of compensation,
but I assume it's handsome.

I don't know quite how to describe
our relationship with Harmoni.

We are not working for Harmoni.

We view what we are doing
as working for ourselves.

The money is on public record, though,
so just tell them how that happened.

We wanted to go to the Department
of Commerce and set the record straight.

We didn't know how.

We didn't have the resources,
really, to spend any time on this.

When Harmoni came to us
and talked to us, they said,

"We cannot pay you for your testimony.

We can pay you an hourly rate

for the actual hours you spend
reviewing documents,

and doing the work necessary
that you want and need to do.

We know from the record that was filed
that Harmoni's lawyers have admitted

that they paid both Avrum and his wife.

I don't know... They have not
stated what the details were,

but they admitted on the public record
that they were being paid.

What they have done is shocking.

They have allied themselves
with the largest importer of garlic

that is paying virtually nothing
for the garlic

and selling it at a very low price,

which is not to my benefit, certainly,

and to theirs, even,
or other garlic producers.

So why they would do this
other than the money...

and even the money, to me...

Is it worth it?

[soft guitar music]

[interviewer] Are anybody's hands clean
in this whole thing?

-[Avrum] No.
-[Kristen] Nobody's hands are clean.

Our hands are not clean.
Stan Crawford's hands are not clean.

Ted Hume's hands are not clean.
Harmoni's hands are not clean.

[narrator] Finally, in June 2017,

the Department of Commerce
announced its final ruling.

And they ruled in favor of Harmoni.

In my reading of this decision,

they accepted virtually every argument
that Harmoni made

and no arguments that we made.

It was clearly a one-sided,
very biased decision.

[narrator] The Department found
that payments to Stanley and Avrum

could in fact be linked to Jack Bai,

that Ted's Chinese clients
were the ones guilty of dumping,

and that Ted's team had no credibility.

And even if there were wrongdoing
by Harmoni and Christopher Ranch,

Commerce said
that wasn't their department.

"The Department
does not have the authority

to enforce the criminal laws
of the United States.

Thus, we can offer no opinion on this."

[narrator] Ted Hume, Ruopeng Wang
and Stanley Crawford

had lost their bid
to even the playing field.

Hume is appealing that decision.

A federal judge ruled that Mingju's
video tapes were not sufficient evidence

to block the import of the garlic, that,
he had argued, was peeled by prisoners.

The shipments continue.

Mingju Xu may never be able
to return to China

because of the work he did
exposing prison-peeled garlic.

I believe I have done nothing wrong.

What I have done is good for everyone.

But if I had another choice,

if life kind of repeated,

probably I would think it over.

Maybe I would not try it again.

[narrator] Harmoni asserts that Mingju's
allegations about prison-peeled garlic

are false, and they insist that
their garlic is sourced from factories

that comply with China's
labor and safety laws.

They also deny that they colluded with
Christopher Ranch to "game the system."

Christopher Ranch declined to answer
any questions for this documentary.

The Fresh Garlic Producers Association
did not answer a request for information

on its trade relationship with Harmoni.

[Ted]
I think that there is a very real need,

that if you're going to have statutes
like the dumping law,

the purpose of which
is to protect American jobs,

that we eliminate
these possibilities of gaming,

which benefit the few
at the expense of the many.

And, you know, garlic growers here
in New Mexico are a good example.

[Kristen] I think that it's really
unfortunate in the way this played out,

because I believe

that Stanley Crawford
believes in his cause,

and I know that we believe in our cause.

And I think...

I hope that we can all get beyond this
at some point.

[Kristen] Ultimately, all of us
are working for the same thing.

It's really for the small growers.

It's really about the small farmers

in the United States and in China,

and it's not really about
these businessmen

who are making all the money
off of our backs.

[speaking in Mandarin]

[soft piano music]

[Stanley] "I feel the days ahead
stirring in my body.

They are connected, these fields,

these high, sunny days, and warm nights.

And this creature that plies them
endlessly through the days.

I'm awake again. It all makes sense again.

I know I can go on."

[ominous music]