A Mexican citizen charged in a scheme to defraud the Export-Import Bank through wire and bank fraud, leading to a Bank loss of more than $2.5 million, was arrested in El Paso April 23. Maria de Jesus Ortiz-Saldivar, 47, was charged in an October 2011 federal indictment, which says that between January 2005 and February 2009, Ortiz-Saldivar and others allegedly sent false loan applications, financial statements and other documents to obtain Ex-Im guaranteed loans, according to an Ex-Im Office of the Inspector General statement. The loans were purportedly for the purchase and export of U.S. goods into Mexico, Ex-Im said. Ortiz-Saldivar was a former accountant for Centro Oncologico de Norte S.A., a purported cancer treatment center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Eight other Mexican fugitives are still wanted in connection with this case, Ex-Im said.
Port workers are entitled to Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act benefits only if their worksites directly abut navigable waters, said the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. As a result, New Orleans Depot Services (NODSI) does not have to pay a workers compensation claim to a container mechanic that worked at its facility 300 yards from the Intracoastal Canal in New Orleans, it said. The appeals court’s ruling overturns its own precedent on the issue, adopting instead the 3rd Circuit’s more restrictive definition of “adjoining” navigable waters.
Deckers Corporation appealed the Court of International Trade’s April 12 dismissal of its challenge to CBP’s classification of its Teva sports sandals. Deckers had argued they should be classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) as sports footwear, but CBP instead found them to be footwear with open toes or open heels. The sandals were made for running and training, and the openings don’t detract from that function, Deckers had argued. CIT, though sympathetic, said it couldn’t ignore the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s ruling on similar footwear from Deckers in a test case the company had itself requested.
The 9th U.S, Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court judgment that said a freight forwarder was not liable for damages related to the misdelivery of goods, because the bill of lading set a one-year time limit for lawsuits. The Hecny Group had signed a guarantee that, in return for an exclusive role in delivery of Clevo’s computer parts to Brazil-based Amazon PC Industria e Comercio de Microcomputadores, Hecny would not release the goods until presented by Amazon with the bill of lading. The bill of lading was kept by Clevo until Amazon made full payment. Clevo argued that the guarantee had no time limit for misdelivery suits. But the court found that the bill of lading was issued after the guarantee, and so superseded it and put a time limit in place.
A Mexican farm owner accused of scheming to defraud the Export-Import Bank of more than $825,000 was sentenced to repay the defrauded amount plus a $2,000 fine and serve 60 months probation, the Bank announced April 25. Jaime Galvan-Guerrero, a 40-year-old Mexican citizen, was initially arrested in 2010, and pleaded guilty in August 2011 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud in a scheme to defraud Ex-Im of $825,563, the Bank said in a statement.
A Dubai company agreed to pay $2.8 million in civil penalties for allegedly exporting Internet monitoring equipment to Syria in violation of the Export Administration Regulations, the Bureau of Industry and Security announced April 25. The United Arab Emirates company, Computerlinks FZCO, allegedly violated the EAR three different times in 2010 and 2011, unlawfully exporting and reexporting equipment and software used to monitor and control Internet traffic to Syria, BIS said. Besides the civil penalty -- the statutory maximum -- Computerlinks agreed to submit to independent, third-party audits, BIS said. The materials, obtained from California company Blue Coat Systems, are controlled for national security, anti-terrorism and encryption reasons, BIS said. The materials are valued at about $1.4 million.
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department’s decision on remand to reverse a scope ruling, finding Welcom’s Magna Cart MCK utility cart to be outside the scope of the antidumping duty order on hand trucks from China (A-570-891). Commerce had originally found the utility cart to be in scope, because not all telescoping tubes in the frame were under 5/8 inch. But Welcom argued, and the court agreed in September, that the agency’s determination went against prior scope rulings 12100103. Welcom supported Commerce’s reversal on remand, and so did the court.
The Court of International Trade awarded Tianjin Magnesium International to pay over $40,000 in attorney fees and costs to the U.S. government and US Magnesium for its misconduct in court proceedings related to an antidumping duty administrative review on pure magnesium from China. The government was awarded its requested amount of $8,302.20 in full, but the court heavily reduced the $215,572.43 requested by US Magnesium to $34,042.72. The company should have gone off the “Laffey Matrix” of average attorneys fees, rather than the fees it actually billed, which ranged from $150 per hour for a paralegal to $645 an hour for a partner. CIT had originally said the fees and costs would be awarded in a November opinion (see 12112329).
The Florida Tomato Exchange (FTE) is challenging the Commerce Department's agreement with Mexican tomato growers to suspend an antidumping investigation on fresh tomatoes from Mexico. The FTE filed its complaint April 19 in the Court of International Trade, alleging that Commerce was operating outside of the statute when it entered into a fourth suspension agreement and revised reference prices.
X2Y Attenuators appealed an International Trade Commission ruling that Intel’s imports of microprocessors do not violate Section 337 (337-TA-781). The ITC determined in February not to review an administrative law judge’s finding that Intel’s chips don’t infringe on X2Y’s patents (see 13022119). The ruling ended the investigation.