Two Singaporeans were extradited from Singapore to stand trial in Washington, D.C., in connection with an alleged fraud conspiracy involving the unlawful export of 55 military antennas from the U.S. to Singapore and Hong Kong, said the Bureau of Industry and Security.

The Court of International Trade sustained the partial application of adverse facts available (AFA) to determine Mueller Comercial’s AD rate, despite Mueller’s full cooperation, in the 2008-09 antidumping administrative review of circular welded non-alloy steel pipe from Mexico (A-201-805). The International Trade Administration had used AFA on incomplete cost data needed from one of Mueller’s suppliers. CIT agreed with the ITA’s argument that the uncooperative supplier would have benefited from a lower AD rate without the partial application of AFA, and said its use was justified, despite the fact that Mueller cooperated.

The Court of International Trade ordered a customs broker to pay a $19,000 penalty for violations of several provisions of the Customs regulations, including failing to notify the importer of record when doing business with an unlicensed person; conducting business without a valid power of attorney; misclassification of entries; and failure to exercise due diligence and responsible supervision and control. The customs broker failed to respond to any of CBP’s pre-penalty notices, penalty notices, and final demands for payments, and did not respond to any notices or motions in this case, so was declared to be in default. As the defendant was in default, CIT took all of CBP’s factual allegations as true, and granted CBP’s motion to collect the penalties.

Eli Lilly agreed to pay over $29 million without admitting or denying allegations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) through improper payments to foreign government officials to win millions of dollars of business in Russia, Brazil, China, and Poland, said the Securities and Exchange Commission in a press release. Eli Lilly used a Russian subsidiary to pay millions of dollars to third parties chosen by government customers or distributors that rarely provided any services and in some cases funneled money to government officials, according to the SEC complaint against the pharmaceutical company. Transactions with offshore or government-affiliated entities did not receive specialized or closer review for possible FCPA violations, said the SEC. Paperwork was accepted at face value and little was done to assess whether the terms or circumstances surrounding a transaction suggested the possibility of foreign bribery, it said.

Xun Wang, a former Managing Director of PPG Paints Trading (Shanghai) Co., a wholly-owned Chinese subsidiary of United States-based PPG Industries, was sentenced Dec. 20 to a year in prison for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, said the Department of Justice. In addition to the prison time, Judge Sullivan ordered Wang to pay a $100,000 fine and to perform 500 hours of community service.

An Iranian corporation, its subsidiaries and several of its officers and business partners have been charged in Alexandria, Va., accused of allegedly exporting more than $30 million in computer goods from U.S. companies to Iran in violation of trade sanctions imposed on Iran, the Justice Department said.

The Court of International Trade sustained the International Trade Administration’s decision to include plaintiffs Jiangsu Changbao Steel Tube and Jiangsu Changbao Precision Tube as part of the China-wide entity, with an AD rate of 99.14 percent, in the antidumping investigation of oil country tubular goods from China (A-570-943). The ITA had found that misrepresentations by company officials during an on-site verification, as well as discrepancies in the company’s accounting programs, impeached the credibility of all statements made by Changbao officials and supported by Changbao’s accounting records. The ITA then disregarded all submissions by Changbao during the investigation, including the company’s separate rate application, resulting in the China-wide rate.

The Court of International Trade denied Millenium Lumber’s motion to dismiss a penalty action seeking $1.8 million in liquidated damages for the failure to get the necessary licenses to import softwood lumber from Canada. Millenium argued the government failed to exhaust its administrative remedies because CBP didn’t complete administrative proceedings to mitigate the penalty before bringing suit to collect the penalties. Relying on its past precedent, CIT said CBP mitigation proceedings are voluntary and discretionary, and so are not a prerequisite for liquidated damages actions.

The Court of International Trade ordered a refund, with interest, of antidumping duty cash deposits paid by U.S. importer AMS Associates (d/b/a Shapiro Packaging), after finding the International Trade Administration violated its regulations by retroactively suspending liquidation of entries of laminated woven sacks from China (A-570-916) in what was in effect a scope inquiry. The ITA had conducted the scope inquiry during the 2008-09 administrative review of the AD duty order, in response to concerns that importers were avoiding AD duties by entering merchandise made with third-country fabric. CIT also found the ITA is permitted to conduct scope inquiries during administrative reviews.

Japan-based Toyo Ink SC Holdings Co. and affiliates will pay $45 million, plus interest, to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly failing to pay antidumping and countervailing duties, said the Justice Department. DOJ alleged the company misrepresented the country of origin on documents submitted to CBP to avoid paying antidumping and countervailing duties on its imports of carbazole violet pigment number 23 (CVP-23).