A Rockville, Md., man was arrested March 7 for allegedly exporting tens of thousands of dollars of industrial parts manufactured by U.S. companies to Iran, in violation of U.S. trade sanctions, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mehdi Khorramshahgol, 49, a U.S. citizen and Iranian national, was charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, ICE said.

The Court of International Trade remanded the final results of an antidumping duty new shipper review on folding metal tables and chairs from China (A-570-868), for the International Trade Administration to reconsider and explain its selection of a surrogate value for one of plaintiff Xinjiamei Furniture’s inputs. The ITA’s chosen value represented only one-fiftieth of one percent of production of cold-rolled steel input from only one major Indian producer, and the input’s value was three times as high as that from the data Xinjiamei placed on the record.

A Maryland man was indicted March 7 for exports in violation of the Iran Trade Embargo, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A federal grand jury indicted Ali Saboonchi of Parkville, Md., a U.S. citizen, and Arash Rashti Mohammad, a citizen and resident of Iran, for conspiring to export, and exporting, to Iran. Saboonchi faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy and on each of four counts for illegal export to an embargoed country. Rashti is believed to be living in Iran, ICE said.

Two air freight forwarding companies in Japan agreed to plead guilty and pay the U.S. a total of $18.9 million in criminal fines in connection to a price fixing conspiracy, said the Justice Department in a press release. "K" Line Logistics will pay about $3.5 million and Yusen Logistics will pay $15.4 million, said the DOJ.

The Court of International Trade dismissed Giorgio Foods’ challenge of the International Trade Commission and CBP’s refusal to disburse funds collected as antidumping and countervailing duties to Giorgio pursuant to the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, also known as the Byrd Amendment). During the original investigation, the company had indicated no position on questionnaires on three AD duty orders on preserved mushrooms, and opposed another. CIT found two of Giorgio’s arguments, that the failure to disburse violated the Constitution on First Amendment free speech and Fifth amendment equal protection grounds, to be foreclosed by previous precedent. The court said it didn’t have jurisdiction to hear Giorgio’s final claim that defendant-intervenors unjustly enriched themselves at Giorgio’s expense by receiving some CDOSA funds to which Giorgio was entitled.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Court of International Trade’s ruling against a challenge to a scope ruling for the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on citric acid from China (A-570-937 / C-570-938). Plaintiff Global Commodities Group had argued its product containing both Chinese and third-country citric acid met the scope’s exclusion for blends of citric acid with other ingredients. According to GCG, the third-country citric acid is an “other ingredient,” and met the scope’s 60% by weight threshold for exclusion. Despite finding GCG’s interpretation “not entirely frivolous,” CAFC said it owed the International Trade Administration deference on interpretation of the scope. The interpretation was reasonable, so the court let CIT’s ruling stand.

The Court of International Trade dismissed part of a challenge to the scope exclusion on finished heat sinks in the antidumping order on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967) for lack of jurisdiction under the 28 USC 1581(i) residual provision, but the challenge will proceed on different grounds.

The Court of International Trade accepted a remand redetermination of the rescission of an antidumping duty new shipper review of honey from China (A-570-863), but following the court’s orders did not lead to a different result. The International Trade Administration considered the evidence it was ordered to accept in the remand, but still found that plaintiff Wuhu Fenglian Co., Ltd. and Suzhou Shanding Product Co. Ltd. did not have any bona fide sales, and confirmed its decision to rescind.

The Court of International Trade dismissed for lack of jurisdiction Sunshine International Trading’s challenge of CBP’s refusal of an entry of women’s apparel. Sunshine said the refusal was a protestable exclusion, and the company’s argument was bolstered by CBP’s mistaken denial, rather than rejection, of the subsequent protest. But CIT ruled that the refusal wasn’t a protestable final action, so the case couldn’t be tried under 28 USC 1581(a) denied protest jurisdiction. Sunshine’s valuation challenge was also dismissed because valuation can only be protested after liquidation, and the court found an error in the dates listed on the entry rejection to be an irrelevant clerical error.

A citizen of Ukraine pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act by attempting to export military-grade night vision equipment from the U.S. to Ukraine, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE agents arrested Volodomyr Ponomarenko while attempting to enter the U.S. on March 23, 2011. Ponomarenko faces up to five years in prison at sentencing.