Federal agents arrested a U.S. citizen and two Russian nationals for charges of exporting controlled microelectronics from the U.S. to end users in Russia, without a license, the Department of Justice said in an Oct. 6 press release (here). Alexey Barysheff of Brooklyn, New York, and Dmitrii Karpenko and Alexey Krutilin of Russia, were arrested, and federal agents executed search warrants at two Brooklyn locations alleged to be the “front” companies of “BKLN Spectra” and “UIP Techno” used for illicit shipments. Microelectronics shipped to Russia included digital-to-analog converters and integrated circuits, often used in radar and surveillance systems, missile guidance systems and satellites, DOJ said. The defendants and their co-conspirators provided the U.S. government with false end user information in connection with the purchase of the items, hid that they were exporters, and falsely classified the exported goods on records submitted to the Commerce Department, DOJ said.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 3-9:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 26 - Oct. 2:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 19-25:

The Court of International Trade on Sept. 21 approved changes to its rules governing interrogatories and a new form for filing physical samples as evidence, it said (here). Other changes would also encourage parties to antidumping and countervailing duty cases to file a single joint appendix containing the parts of the administrative records cited by all parties. The amendments take effect Oct. 3.

Siemens agreed to pay a $175,000 fine for not disclosing two corporate felony convictions on a variety of Federal Communications Commission wireless license applications. The convictions stem from Siemens in 2008 pleading guilty to violating the accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act through bribery of foreign government officials and in 2007 pleading guilty to a federal charge of obstruction of justice in a civil matter, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in its Sept. 22 order (here). The failure to disclose "is particularly troubling because the underlying acts included misdeeds involving foreign telecommunications regulators," the bureau said, saying the consent decree includes that the two Siemens subsidiaries involved -- Siemens Corp. and Siemens Medical Solutions -- corrected the wireless application submissions on their own initiative and were fully cooperative with a bureau investigation afterward. Under the consent decree, the two also will develop and implement a compliance plan aimed at ensuring accurate future filing of wireless license applications, including a compliance manual and compliance training. Siemens didn't comment.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 12-18:

Chinese OEM Tomtop Group isn't an HDMI licensee, but is selling AV products with counterfeit HDMI logos over its e-commerce website and via third-party online retailers Alibaba, Amazon, DHGate, eBay and Taobao, HDMI Licensing alleged Sept. 15 in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. CBP has seized a “plethora” of HDMI-infringing Tomtop products entering the U.S. since 2012, but HDMI Licensing was unsuccessful in shutting down the illegal activity through cease-and-desist letters and other measures, the complaint said. The infringing products “bear markings that are identical, or confusingly similar, to,” actual HDMI logos and “provide consumers with a false assurance that the Infringing Products that they have purchased are reliable and conform to HDMI Licensing’s high standards and rigorous compliance testing when, in fact, they do not,” the complaint said. “HDMI Licensing has suffered and is continuing to suffer irreparable harm and financial injury as a result” of Tomtop’s behavior because the infringing products “are likely of a sub-standard quality, unreliable, and/or unable to deliver the exceptional signal and image quality offered by Licensed Products,” it said. Consumers who use the products “will falsely attribute” any “negative experiences” with them to HDMI Licensing, and that “is likely to erode the substantial goodwill that HDMI Licensing has spent years and millions of dollars in developing,” it said. Tomtop didn’t comment.

Dmitriy Melnik pleaded guilty in a Nevada federal court to conspiracy charges for trafficking in counterfeit contact lenses, the Department of Justice said in a news release (here). Melnik, who owned and operated Candy Color Lenses, knowingly importing counterfeit lenses from China and South Korea, the plea agreement said. Melnik then sold the products over the internet to customers without a prescription. "The prosecution is the result of an ongoing multiagency effort to combat counterfeit, illegally imported and unapproved contact lenses called Operation Double Vision," the DOJ said. "The FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations led the investigation, with significant support from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations."

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 5-11: