[11] In September 1937, he paid over ten thousand dollars in duties and penalties on jewelry, furs, and wearable apparel his wife Elma failed to declare when they returned from a trip to Europe.
In the fall of 1938, the maid, outraged at anti-Hitler remarks made at a Lauer dinner party, informed the federal authorities that Elma smuggled again.
Elma, Jack Benny, and George Burns were all revealed to have received articles smuggled into the country by the self-styled diplomat Albert N. Chaperau.
In that month, Federal Attorney John T. Cahill sent a letter to Governor Herbert H. Lehman charging Laurer with being involved in the second smuggling.
Lehman forwarded the letter to the State Legislature to decide what actions should be done to him, and the Senate and Assembly's Judiciary Committees convened to discuss the issue.
[12] In 1936, Portuguese Consul General Verdades de Faria decorated Lauer with the cross of the Officer of Devotement of the Republic of Portugal.