The Justice Department has announced that a Virginia woman, Chun-Yu Zhao, was sentenced to 60 months in prison, ordered to pay $2.7 million in restitution and a $17,500 fine. for leading a conspiracy to import and to sell counterfeit Cisco-branded computer networking equipment, and other charges. Zhao and her family members and other co-conspirators in China agreed to lie on declaration forms and to sell shipments of counterfeit Cisco-branded computer networking equipment and used counterfeit labels and packaging to mislead consumers into believing that they were purchasing genuine Cisco products.
The Justice Department has announced that Uniteam Marine Shipping GmbH, a German corporation, was sentenced to pay an $800,000 criminal penalty, a $200,000 payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and was placed on three years of supervised probation, for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and making false statements to the Coast Guard. Investigations revealed that from January until May 2010, the crew on a Uniteam vessel manipulated the oil water separator so that it failed to function properly and allowed the illegal discharge of oily bilge wastes directly into the ocean.
The Justice Department has announced that Jorge Granados, a former Chief Executive Officer of Florida-based telecommunications company Latin Node Inc., was sentenced to serve 46 months in prison for paying bribes to former government officials in Honduras, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The Court of International Trade has ruled1, among other things, that U.S. Customs and Border Protection's failure to provide a surety notice of suspension of liquidation as required by 19 USC 1504(c), does not invalidate an otherwise valid suspension. The CIT also determined that the Government's claims for two entries of crawfish tail meat from China were time-barred as they were deemed liquidated six months after the International Trade Administration published a Notice of Rescission in the Federal Register, which was more than six years before the Government commenced court action.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida has announced that an indictment was unsealed as a result of the arrest of Elias Garcia and Maria Plancarte for crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. to illegally sell jaguar skins. According to the indictment, Garcia and Plancarte offered to sell jaguar skins to potential customers in person in Texas and by electronic means elsewhere. Additionally, the defendants made repeated road trips to South Florida, carrying jaguar skins to sell to Florida customers.
According to press sources, an analysis of online traffic from Twitter and Facebook after two Gibson Guitar factories were raided by the Justice Department due to alleged violations of the Lacey Act found that 62% of traffic was against the raids. The other 18% of such traffic was neutral with regard to the raids (such as reporting), and 20% provided jokes. The Justice Department has suggested that Gibson's use of wood from India which is not finished by Indian workers is illegal due to the Department's interpretation of an Indian law. Gibson states it has complied with foreign laws and believes it is innocent of any wrong doing. This was the second time federal agents have raided Gibson facilities.
On August 31, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that 13 suspects have been arrested for their alleged role in an international car theft scheme in which stolen luxury vehicles from the U.S. were transshipped through Canada to Iraq. The vehicles were allegedly rented from national rental car chains in Michigan and Ohio, which were then driven into Canada, where police reports were filed claiming that the vehicles had been either carjacked or stolen in the Detroit-area. Five of the vehicles were allegedly intercepted on shipping containers at the Port of Montreal by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Export documents accompanying these vehicles stated that their export agent was Discount Auto Sales, a company owned by one of the suspects.
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.