A California man was arrested April 16 after Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he ran a multimillion-dollar scheme that smuggled counterfeit Apple and Samsung cellphone parts from China into the U.S. for sale to the public. Chan Hung Le faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison if convicted. Le, who owns Irvine, California-based EZ Elektronix, started the import scheme in 2010, ICE said in a press release.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 8-14:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 1-7:

The CFO of Roadrunner Transportation Systems until 2017, Peter Armbruster, was indicted for "his alleged role in a complex securities and accounting fraud scheme that resulted in a loss of more than $245 million in shareholder value," the Department of Justice said in an April 3 news release. Two other Roadrunner executives were indicted last year as part of the alleged scheme. "All three defendants were charged with one count of conspiracy to make false statements to a public company’s accountants and to falsify a public company’s books, records and accounts; two counts of false entries in a public company’s books, records and accounts; one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud; two counts of securities fraud; and two counts of wire fraud," the DOJ said. The indictment details efforts "of so-called 'cushion' accounting whereby they selectively reduced liability accounts in order to create a 'cushion' of funds that the conspirators used to fraudulently inflate Roadrunner’s financial performance in later quarters," the DOJ said. Roadrunner didn't comment.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 25-31:

Two executives are facing criminal charges over failure to report known issues with imported dehumidifiers from China to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Department of Justice said in March 29 news release. The DOJ described it as the "first-ever criminal prosecution for failure to report under" the Consumer Product Safety Act. Charley Loh and Simon Chu were both executives at two "unindicted co-conspirator" California companies that "imported, distributed and sold dehumidifiers to retailers," according to the indictment. "The indictment alleges that as early as September 2012, Chu, Loh, and their companies received multiple reports that their Chinese dehumidifiers were defective, dangerous, and could catch fire," the DOJ said. "They also allegedly knew that they were required to report this product safety information to the CPSC immediately. Despite their knowledge of consumer complaints of dehumidifier fires and test results showing problems with the dehumidifiers, the indictment alleges that Chu and Loh failed to disclose their dehumidifiers’ defects and hazards for at least six months while they continued to sell their products to retailers for resale to consumers." Loh and Chu also allegedly sought to avoid a recall by "fraudulently representing" the dehumidifiers "as meeting UL safety standards and being safe for use by consumers."

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 18-24:

An appeal of the Court of International Trade’s recent decision finding Section 232 duties constitutional will be filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to avoid any distraction caused by the government’s likely opposition to a direct appeal to the Supreme Court, said Alan Morrison, a George Washington University law professor and the American Institute for International Steel’s lead counsel in the case. A three-judge CIT panel on March 25 ruled against the trade group and a pair of steel importers in their challenge to the Section 232 tariffs imposed in 2018 on iron and steel, finding itself bound by four-decade-old precedent that held Section 232 duties are not an excessive delegation of power (see 1903250032). “We think that a direct appeal to the Supreme Court is possible, but it would [be] opposed by the Government and therefore be a distraction,” Morrison said. The AIIS initially requested the three-judge panel because it would allow a direct Supreme Court appeal (see 1806270036).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sustained a Court of International Trade decision on a Commerce Department scope ruling that found curtain wall units imported separately by Yuanda for the same construction project are covered by antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967/C-570-968). "We see neither legal error nor insufficient evidentiary support for the ultimate Commerce determination, and we therefore affirm the Court of International Trade’s decision." CIT in 2017 held that curtain wall units may be subassemblies that are not subject to duties, but that Yuanda’s units need further fabrication before assembly, disqualifying them for the exemption (see 1712210051).

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 11-17: