The 30-day period to challenge scope rulings in court begins on the date the scope ruling is mailed by the Commerce Department, and is not triggered by email communications, said the Court of International Trade as it dismissed Medline Industries’ challenge. Medline had filed suit after Commerce emailed its lawyer a copy of the adverse scope ruling on wooden bedroom furniture from China. But the snail mail scope ruling from a month later actually triggered the period for filing suit, even though Commerce had allegedly misrepresented that no physically mailed scope ruling would be forthcoming. The case will proceed regardless, as Medline filed a separate challenge following its second receipt of the scope ruling. The company expressed concern, however, at the cost of having to appeal this dismissal of its first suit to protect itself from a jurisdictional challenge.

A Chinese national pleaded guilty to attempting to export five tons of weapons-grade carbon fiber to China, a plot discovered through undercover work by U.S. agents, the Department of Justice announced May 30. Lisong Ma, 34, faces up to 20 years in prison, forfeiture and a $1 million fine. In February, Ma emailed an undercover agent and indicated he was interested in acquiring several types of high-grade carbon fiber, then attempted to negotiate the purchase of five tons of carbon fiber, the DOJ said in a statement. Such fiber is under Commerce Department jurisdiction; its two main applications are in specialized technology and in general engineering and transportation. The material sought by Ma is used in military aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Court of International Trade upheld a Commerce Department ruling that found magnesia alumina carbon bricks to be within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on magnesia carbon bricks (A-570-954 / C-570-955). CIT agreed with Commerce that the magnesia alumina carbon bricks (MACBs) meet the scope’s plain language and are interchangeable with in-scope magnesia carbon bricks (MCBs). CIT also said Commerce acted reasonably in using 19 CFR 351.225(k)(2) factors to determine whether MACBs were covered under the scope, since (k)(1) evidence was ambiguous. Fedmet Resources Corporation, the steel and high temperature product company that appealed Commerce’s scope ruling, argued the final scope evidence was insufficient. Fedmet also said the steel industry considers MACBs distinct products from MCBs. CIT, however, said the characteristics MACBs exhibit due to spinel -- a mineral created when the bricks are heated which improves brick performance -- are the same as characteristics of in-scope MCBs that set it apart from other refractory products. Commerce also correctly interpreted the manner of MACB advertisements and the ultimate use of low-alumina MACBs in its scope ruling, CIT said.

The Court of International Trade sustained a Commerce Department scope ruling that found Power Train Components’ wheel hub units are covered by the scope of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China (A-570-601). CIT agreed with the agency that the wheel hub units without antilock braking (ABS) sensors are covered by the scope language addressing “tapered roller housings … whether or not for automotive use.” In support, the court noted that the ITC injury report from the investigation identified wheel hub units as a type of tapered roller bearing, and depictions of wheel hub units were included in the original petition. The court then looked at Commerce’s determination that Power Train’s wheel hub units incorporating ABS sensors are within the scope, and found Commerce’s analysis of each of the 19 CFR 351.225(k)(2) factors -- physical characteristics, expectations of ultimate purchasers, ultimate use, channels of trade, and manner of display and advertising -- to be reasonable.

Daniel O’Toole will take over as circuit executive and clerk of court at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit June 16. O’Toole was previously chief judge at the Department of the Navy, the position from which he retired in 2012.

The Commerce Department will take a look at allegations of fraud during the 2008-09 antidumping duty administrative review of frozen warmwater shrimp from China, after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted the agency a remand. The case had been before CAFC on appeal from the Court of International Trade’s decision sustaining the 2008-09 final results in March 2012 (see 12040304). In the meantime, Commerce found respondent Hilltop International had committed fraud during the 2010-11 review (see 12083123). The Court of International Trade then expanded a remand of the 2009-10 review to see whether fraud also occurred during that proceeding (see 13011003). In ordering a remand of the 2008-09 final results, CAFC chose to follow the lower court’s lead.

A 48-year-old Massachusetts man was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in a scheme involving financing of international printing press sales, the Department of Justice said May 20. James Bender, former senior vice president of trade finance for Sovereign Bank, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He worked with Paul Wilson, former manager of international trade finance for Goss International Americas Corporation, to defraud foreign companies that purchased commercial printing presses from Goss. Wilson worked to ensure Export-Import Bank credit insurance for loans extended to Goss's foreign customers, while Bender arranged for his Bank to purchase most of the loans Goss extended to its foreign customers. Bender and Wilson created two shell companies, sending fake invoices for loan underwriting services totaling more than $200,000 to two Brazilian and two Mexican companies, DOJ said. Bender Wilson pleaded guilty last year to three counts of wire fraud, and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. Bender was convicted after a jury trial in United States District Court in New Hampshire.

The owner of a Colorado steel supply company was sentenced to more than two years in prison for working to defraud the Export-Import Bank of more than $11 million, the Bank announced May 20. Luis Moy, a 47-year-old permanent legal resident of the U.S., pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. From 2004-2008, Moy acted as the exporter in 11 fake Ex-Im insured or guaranteed loans, totaling $11,183,275, Ex-Im said. Moy admitted that he and his partners planned to misappropriate the loans so they could personally use the money. In addition to his prison term, Moy was sentenced to 60 months of supervised release and ordered to pay the fake loan amount in forfeiture, Ex-Im said.

The Court of International Trade sent back to the Commerce Department its final results from the 2008-09 antidumping administrative review and new shipper review on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam (A-552-801). Commerce itself requested remands on several issues related to valuation of surrogate inputs. In response to challenges by domestic industry, CIT also remanded the agency’s selection of Bangladesh instead of the Philippines as the surrogate country, as well as allegations of ministerial errors.

The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department’s decision to end an antidumping new shipper review for a Chinese company because of a single sale of subject merchandise produced by a manufacturer subject to the original investigation. Pujiang Talent Diamond Tools challenged the agency’s rescission of a new shipper review of diamond sawblades from China (A-570-900), arguing that, despite such a requirement in Commerce’s regulations, rescinding on the basis of a single sale went too far. But the court found that a decision by Commerce to go against its own regulations and not rescind wasn’t a choice the agency could make.