Minsu Fang, a Chinese national, was indicted for allegedly conspiring to import what the U.S. government believes to be "the largest amount of fentanyl precursors found in the Southern District of Texas and one of the largest in the country," DOJ announced July 22.

Maxim Marchenko, a Russian national living in Hong Kong, was sentenced on July 17 to three years in prison for his role in shipping dual-use, military grade organic light-emitting diode (OLED) micro-displays for Russian end users (see 2309190063), DOJ announced. He will serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.

A dual U.S.-Ghana citizen made his initial appearance in a New York court July 16, a day after being extradited from the U.K. for his role in a scheme to bribe Ghanaian officials, DOJ announced. Asante Kwaku Berko is charged with one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of violating the FCPA and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.

Nikolay Goltsev of Montreal and Brooklyn, New York, resident Salimdzhon Nasriddinov pleaded guilty July 9 to conspiracy to commit export control violations. The two men shipped electronic components to sanctioned Russian companies, some of which were then found in "seized Russian weapons platforms and signals intelligence equipment in Ukraine," according to DOJ.

DOJ reached a settlement in a civil forfeiture case against a Los Angeles mansion belonging to a former Armenian government official's family. The mansion will be forfeited to the U.S., which will then sell the property, retaining 85% of the proceeds. The remaining funds will be sent to the sons of the former official, Gagik Khachatryan, and a corporation that the sons own. The forfeiture is part of the resolution of a foreign corruption scheme prosecuted by DOJ.

A Hallandale, Florida, resident was charged on July 2 with smuggling controlled goods into Russia from the U.S. Kirill Gordei, president of Florida-based freight forwarding company Apelsin Logistics, faces three counts -- conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., smuggling goods from the U.S. and exporting a spectrometer, a controlled item, unlawfully -- DOJ announced. A Belarus citizen and U.S. permanent resident, Gordei faces maximums of five, 10 and 20 years in prison for the charges, respectively.

Douglas Robertson, former vice president of KanRus Trading Co., pleaded guilty on July 2 to conspiring to violate U.S. export laws by shipping "sophisticated and controlled avionics equipment to customers in Russia," DOJ announced.

DOJ struck a deal with Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, members of his family and trust entities he established to settle two civil forfeiture cases stemming from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad international embezzlement scheme, DOJ announced.

PetroChina International America -- a subsidiary of oil and gas giant PetroChina International Co. -- agreed to pay a $14.5 million fine for violating U.S. export laws, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas announced this week.

Joly Germine of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally export firearms to Haiti and for laundering money paid for U.S. hostages held by the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo, DOJ announced.