The Cyprus Bar Association (CBA) last week raided a lawyer's lobbying firm offices as part of an investigation into "suspected fictitious transactions," Cyprus newspaper Phileleftheros reported. The investigation centered on Finsol, a firm that provides services to Santinomo, which reportedly holds shares in Intellexa AE -- an entity that's part of U.S.-sanctioned spyware firm Intellexa. The suspicious transactions began "shortly after US sanctions were imposed on entities of the Intellexa group," the newspaper's report said. A Greek lawyer registered with CBA owns Finsol. The CBA's compliance and oversight department is conducting the investigation and, upon its conclusion, will send a report to the association's administrative council. The council will decide whether "disciplinary measures will be taken or, more importantly, whether the case will be referred to the police for criminal investigation," Phileleftheros reported.
Ross Roggio of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on April 15 to 70 years in prison for torturing an Estonian citizen in 2015 in Iraq and for exporting weapons parts and related services to Iraq, DOJ announced. Roggio was convicted in May of "exporting weapons parts and services to Iraq" without approval, shipping "weapons tools to Iraq," smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering. He sent firearms parts and tools and "illegally trained foreign persons in the operation, assembly, and manufacturing of the M4 automatic rifle," DOJ said.
A former North Korean official serving in Thailand, Myong Ho Ri, was charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions, bank fraud and money laundering, DOJ announced.
The International Trade Commission on April 16 continued to stick by its decision that imports of methionine from Spain had "significant price effects on prices for the domestic like product," part of its finding in an antidumping duty investigation that the imports of the product injured U.S. industry. In remand results submitted to the Court of International Trade, the commission said it considered the "factual accuracy of the volume of lost sales," as instructed by the court, and came to the same conclusion (Adisseo Espana v. United States, CIT # 21-00562).
The Court of International Trade in an opinion made public April 16 sent back the Commerce Department's use of adverse facts available against exporter Garg Tube Exports in the 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on welded carbon steel standard pipes and tubes from India.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reappointed Devin Sikes, counsel for Akin Gump, to the U.S. roster for antidumping and countervailing duty disputes stemming from USMCA Chapter 10, the firm announced. The term -- Sikes' fifth on the U.S. roster -- expires March 31, 2025.
World Trade Organization members, during an April 11 Committee on Trade and Development meeting, reviewed developments in regional trade agreements and ways to increase developing nations' role in the global trading system, the WTO announced. The committee noted that developing nations face challenges to participating in international trade, including "dependence on commodity exports and higher trade costs." The members addressed policy spaces for developing nations to boost industrial development, including under the WTO's framework of the Agreements on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, Trade-Related Investment Measures and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
Three German exporters, led by Ilsenburger Grobblech, opposed the U.S. government's motion for an extension of time to file its response brief in an appeal of the antidumping duty investigation on cut-to-length carbon and alloy steel plate from Germany. The U.S. asked for a six-day extension, but Ilsenburger said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has already given the government a 37-day extension and that the additional six days would effectively double the time under the court's rules to file a response brief (Ilsenburger Grobblech v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1219).
Chinese exporter Ninestar Corp. will submit a delisting petition with the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force to get off the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, the company told the Court of International Trade in an April 12 status report (Ninestar Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on April 12 ruled that Texas construction equipment distributor I Dig Texas didn't falsely represent its skid steer attachments as being made in the U.S. The court said the company's advertisements were ambiguous on whether the products' parts are all American-made or whether the goods themselves were assembled in the U.S. (I Dig Texas v. Kerry Creager, 10th Cir. # 23-5046).