The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) is hopeful an April 22 forfeiture complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland will allow the group to address a number of issues it hadn't yet been able to litigate over, said Peter Tompa, a lawyer with Bailey and Ehrenberg who is representing ACCG. "We are reviewing the forfeiture complaint and will file a claim and answer in the time frame allowed," he said by email.

A Taiwanese father and his Chicago-dwelling son were charged with allegedly conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as circumventing Treasury Department sanctions, the Bureau of Industry and Security announced May 6. Hsien Tai Tsai, also known as Alex Tsai, and Yueh-Hsun Tsai, also known as Gary Tsai, were charged in U.S. District Court in Chicago with three counts each of conspiring to defraud the U.S. in its enforcement of laws and regulations prohibiting weapons of mass destruction proliferation, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and money laundering.

The Court of International Trade upheld a Commerce Department anti-circumvention ruling that made Vietnamese company Max Fortune’s exports subject to the antidumping duty order on tissue paper products from China (A-570-894). Max Fortune had challenged Commerce’s decision to apply adverse facts available, as well as the agency’s decision to require cash deposits instead of allowing the company to certify the origin of its exports.

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.