The D.C. United States District Court dismissed a whistleblower's action against Staples, OfficeMax, Target, and Industries for the Blind for alleged false country of origin statements on entry documentation to avoid payment of antidumping duties on pencils from China. The anonymous whistleblower pursued the action under the False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to bring suit on behalf of the government over false or fraudulent claims for payment to the federal government. In return, the whistleblower receives a portion of the recovered funds. But to bring suit, the whistleblower must have inside information, unless he or she is the original source of public information. In this case, the whistleblower was neither.

The Court of International Trade sustained an International Trade Administration determination that tires imported by OTR Wheel Engineering are included in the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on new pneumatic off-road tires from China (A-570-912). The court had originally remanded in June, saying the ITA should have looked at factors beyond the language of the scope, orders, and International Trade Commission injury determinations ([see Ref:12062805]).

A Michigan company and its owner were sentenced March 25 for trafficking in counterfeit goods and services, and violating environmental laws, to evade restrictions on trade in electronic waste, said the Environmental Protection Agency. Mark Jeffrey Glover was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a $10,000 fine, and his company, Discount Computers, Inc. (DCI), a $2 million fine with $10,839 in restitution. DCI was also sentenced for storing and disposing of hazardous waste without a permit, the EPA said. Glover pleaded guilty to the charges on his behalf and that of his company in October 2012.

The Supreme Court denied a petition from the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) that sought high court review of restrictions to importing certain antique coins. The ACCG filed the suit against CBP and others after the agency seized Cypriot and Chinese coins imported by ACCG to test restrictions under the Cultural Property Implementation Act. ACCG filed the request in February (see 13021902) after an appeals court judge sided with the government about the legality of the restrictions (see 12102420).

The Court of International Trade denied Riddell's challenge to CBP's classification of its football pants, jerseys, and girdles, finding the goods to be correctly classified as apparel and not sports equipment. The football uniform components were imported without pads, and as goods are classified in their condition as imported, they did not qualify as sports protective equipment, the court said.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the 2008 convictions of Zhen Hour Wu and Guofeng Wei for numerous counts of export violations, but vacated convictions related to the duo’s alleged violations of the U.S. Munitions List because of flawed jury instructions. In their defense, Wu and Wei, Chinese nationals who ran an electronics parts broker company, attacked the U.S. arms export control system as so vague it violates the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

The Court of International Trade (CIT) is testing a new version of the Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system to improve mobile access to the court's dockets, said Steve Swindell, case management supervisor at the CIT. "In this version it will be easier to view docket sheets on their mobile device," he said. The CIT also has two pilot programs, one with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and another with CBP, that is testing the transfer of CM/ECF documents via email, he said.

The Court of International Trade dismissed a challenge to CBP’s extensions of the liquidation deadline on entries of citric acid from India and the Dominican Republic. CBP and ICE had been investigating possible transshipment of citric acid from China through India and the Dominican Republic to evade antidumping and countervailing duties. Plaintiffs Chemsol and MC International argued that the investigation was inactive because CBP and ICE had not requested new information from the companies, and so CBP was unjustified in its extensions. But the court said CBP was within its rights to extend the liquidation deadlines, because CBP isn’t restricted to seeking more information only from the investigated companies.

President Obama has nominated two people to serve on the Court of Federal Claims. Their nominations now head to the Senate for approval.

The Court of International Trade sustained CBP’s Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification of plaintiff Link Snacks’ beef jerky, ruling that the product was correctly classified in the HTS subheading for cured beef. Link Snacks had argued that beef jerky is defined by the drying process used in its manufacture, not the curing process. The court was sympathetic to Link Snacks’ argument, but in the end found that it could not go against the plain meaning of the terms in the HTS.