On July 29, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that Cem Kiyak, a former Sacramento retailer, is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court following his arrest on charges of trafficking in counterfeit goods. Kiyak operated three stores or kiosks at the Westfield Downtown Mall in Sacramento. He sold jewelry, apparel, accessories, and other goods to which counterfeit marks had been applied, including labels for Chanel, Juicy Couture, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Armani, and other brand name designers and manufacturers. If convicted, Kiyak faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $5 million fine.

On August 1, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that a husband and wife, Yuri and Anneri Izurieta, and their company, Naver Trading Corp., were sentenced for conspiring to smuggle adulterated cheese into the U.S. Naver Trading is a licensed importer engaged in the importation and sale of dairy products; however, the defendants were not authorized to sell and distribute the dairy products. The defendants allegedly knew that their dairy products were contaminated with harmful bacteria, but nonetheless, failed to return the merchandise for destruction as required and, on some occasions, even sold and distributed their dairy products. Anneri was sentenced to 30 months in prison, Yuri to 27 months, and Naver Trading to two years probation.

On July 28, 2011, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York announced that Chigbo Peter Umeh was sentenced to prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. Umeh was a broker who facilitated the shipment of multi-ton quantities of cocaine from South America to West Africa, where it would then be transported to Europe or elsewhere within Africa. He attempted to bribe high-level officials within the Liberian Government in order to protect shipments of cocaine and to use the country as a trans-shipment point for his drug distribution operations.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced that on July 29, 2011 Brendan Clery, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 criminal fine and forfeit illegal proceeds in the amount of $935,240 for knowingly importing an ozone-depleting substance regulated by EPA under the Clean Air Act (CAA).

On July 28, 2011, the Justice Department announced that Caterpillar Inc., has agreed to pay a $2.55 million civil penalty to settle alleged Clean Air Act violations for shipping more than 590,000 highway and non-road engines without the correct emissions controls. Caterpillar also allegedly failed to comply with emission control reporting and engine-labeling requirements. Among other things, the consent decree requires Caterpillar to continue its recall of non-compliant engines to install correct emissions controls. The state of California is also settling its claims for violations arising from the sale in California of the improperly configured engines, and will receive $510,000 of the civil penalty.

On July 28, 2011, the Justice Department announced that four corporations have been sentenced to pay a $1 million penalty and banned from doing business in the U.S. for the next five years due to illegally dumping sludge and oily waste overboard in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, Ports, and the Ships, Ports, and Waterways Safety Act. The four corporations were Stanships Inc. (Marshall Islands), a repeat offender, Stanships Inc. (New York), Standard Shipping Inc. and Calmore Maritime Ltd., collectively the owners and operator of the M/V Americana, a Panamanian registered cargo vessel.

Atar, S.r.L. challenged the finding by the International Trade Administration, in a reversal from prior reviews, that Atar did not qualify as a “tolling” manufacturer of pasta imports from Italy and therefore, did not qualify for its own AD duty rates. (A tolling producer uses subcontractors but arranges the sale.) Instead, after a voluntary remand, the ITA assigned to Atar‘s reported imports in the July 2005 -- June 2006 AD administrative review of pasta from Italy the rates it calculated for the individual Italian subcontractors that had produced the subject merchandise. The Court of International Trade agreed with the ITA, citing among other factors the agency’s “reseller policy,” under which, if producers such as Atar’s subcontractors are aware of the destination of a sale by a reseller, the ITA will find that the producer set the price of sale, and will assess the AD duty based on that producer’s rate. (Slip Op. 11-87, dated 07/22/11)

The Court of International Trade has ruled in Ocean Duke Corporation v. U.S., that the time limit to file suit for relief from enhanced continuous bond requirements that were applied to shrimp imports subject to AD/CV duties began when CBP required Ocean Duke Corporation to post the higher, enhanced bonds, and not when CBP denied Ocean Duke's requests to cancel them.

On July 27, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged London-based Diageo plc, one of the world’s largest producers of premium alcoholic beverages, with widespread violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) stemming from more than six years of improper payments to government officials in India, Thailand, and South Korea. Diageo agreed to pay more than $16 million to settle the SEC’s charges.

Five Chinese producer/exporters challenged the final results of the International Trade Administration’s Second Remand Determination in the November 2002 -- October 2003 AD administrative review of fresh garlic from China, contesting the agency’s wage rate calculation and packaging materials values. The ITA also requested a voluntary remand to recalculate the labor wage rate. The Court of International Trade ordered the ITA to revisit its valuations of the labor rate, and ordered the agency to reconsider its insistence on using “admittedly non-representative” published Indian import values for packing materials (cardboard cartons, plastic jars and plastic jar lids), rather than documented price quotes from Indian vendors for comparable items. (Slip Op. 11-88, dated 07/22/11)