In the February ’08 - January ’09 AD administrative review of certain frozen warmwater shrimp from China, the International Trade Administration chose respondents based on the import volumes reported in Customs and Border Protection’s Form 7501. The ITA refused to consider prior review period evidence from three federal agencies, including the ITA itself, showing that import volumes reported on Form 7501 were inaccurate. The Court of International Trade, noting that the agency in other instances readily uses information carried over from prior reviews, such as for company affiliations, faulted the agency for inconsistency, and ordered it to reconsider its use of the Form 7501 volume data, and possibly modify its respondent selection.
On August 30, 2011, the Justice Department announced that Sabry Lee Inc., a California aftermarket auto lights distributor for a Taiwan producer, has agreed to plead guilty for its participation in a global conspiracy to fix the prices of aftermarket auto lights.
Canada Border Services Agency announced that Vancouver resident Colin Li Hsin Cheng has received an 18 month conditional sentence in the British Columbia Supreme Court after pleading guilty to four criminal customs-related charges stemming from cigarette smuggling and fraudulently posing as a customs broker. During the sentencing on August 18, 2011, Mr. Cheng was also ordered to pay $10,714.74 in restitution to his fraud victims.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has decided to vacate the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s final rule requiring motor carriers that are substantially non-compliant with the hours-of-service (HOS) regulations to install electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) to monitor their compliance. This case was brought before the Court by three commercial truck drivers and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) who petitioned for review of the final rule.
On August 25, 2011, Gibson Guitar Corp. issued a press release to announce that the Justice Department has raided and temporarily shut down two Gibson facilities in the Department's enforcement of the Lacey Act Amendments. According to Gibson, the Justice Department has suggested that Gibson's use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal.
On August 26, 2011, the Justice Department announced that Roger Charles Day Jr. was found guilty of leading an international conspiracy to sell more than $4.4 million in nonconforming and defective parts to the Department of Defense (DoD) and of smuggling gold out of the U.S. into Mexico.
On August 25, 2011, the Treasury Department announced that JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A of New York has agreed to remit $88,300,000 to settle potential civil liability for apparent violations of several sanctions regulations over a six year period.
A Chinese manufacturer/exporter challenged the International Trade Administration’s denial of a request for a changed circumstance review to reconsider the use of zeroing in the investigation which led to the AD duty order for diamond sawblades from China. The reason for the request was that after ITA made its final AD determination (but before it issued the AD order), it announced1 that it would no longer use zeroing in investigations. Nevertheless, the ITA argued that it did not need to reconsider its use of zeroing in the sawblades investigation, because its final AD duty rate determination pre-dated the policy change. The Court of International Trade agreed with the ITA, finding the agency’s denial of a changed circumstance review was “not unreasonable.”
On August 24, 2011, the Justice Department announced that Google Inc. has agreed to forfeit $500 million for allowing online Canadian pharmacies to place advertisements through its AdWords program targeting consumers in the U.S., which resulted in the unlawful importation of controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs into the U.S.
The Court of International Trade has ruled that an importer whose identity is alleged to have been stolen and used by another to enter goods that never came into the importer's possession, may not sue for a refund of liquidated damages as the importer failed to seek timely relief under 28 USC 1581(a) by protesting CBP's Notice of Redelivery. CIT stated that had the importer protested the Notice, it could have raised the exact issues raised in this suit.