“We are pleased to reach this agreement and resolve a legacy issue related to the Lacey Act,” said John Presley, chairman of the company’s board of directors, in a statement. “We will continue to focus on strengthening Lumber Liquidators across every area of the organization.”

Federal authorities investigated Lumber Liquidators for at least two years after the Environmental Investigation Agency, a nonprofit conservation organization based in Washington, D.C., released a report indicating that it had traced the wood from the Russian Far East to the American flooring retailer.

The illegal timber trade affects not only Russia—which accounts for one-quarter of the Earth’s trees—but also forests from Peru and Brazil to Gabon and Indonesia. The World Bank estimates that the illegal industry rakes in about $10 billion to $15 billion a year.

In recent years, concern over illegal logging in Russia has increased. At a meeting on timber management in 2013, Putin said that illegal logging had risen by nearly 70 percent during the previous five years. China's increasingly strict limits on the logging of its own trees has contributed to swelling demand for the stolen goods from Russia, where Putin has acknowledged that timber thieves are aided by corrupt officials. The EIA and the World Wildlife Fund also have issued reports about the problem