Five individuals and two domestic honey processing companies were charged with falsifying entry documents on honey imported from China, and transshipping through other countries, to evade antidumping and duties on the merchandise, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement reported. The seven defendants allegedly evaded antidumping duties totaling more than $180 million, it said.

The former president of the International Longshoremen's Association Local 1526 and his executive assistant were indicted on charges of conspiracy to steal money, funds, property, and other assets of the union local, said the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. The 17-count indictment and the arrests of defendants Darryl Brice Payne, a/k/a Darryl "Mike D," Payne, 47, of Sunrise, and Tianni Latrice Brown, f/k/a Tianni Latrice Wade, 31, of Lauderhill, Fla., last week.

The owner of a tile and tile cutting and milling company in Miami was sentenced to 12 months in home confinement for his role in a scheme to defraud Export-Import Bank of the U.S. of nearly $141,053, said the Ex-Im Office of Inspector General. It said Diego Pinzon-Villamil, 51, was sentenced Feb. 14 in U.S. District Court, Miami. He also was sentenced to 36 months of supervised release and was ordered to pay $141,053 in restitution. Pinzon pleaded guilty on November 28 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud Ex-Im Bank. According to court documents, Pinzon's Ceramic Tile USA purported to be in the business of exporting tile and tile cutting equipment to South America, but Pinzon admitted that he and co-conspirators created false invoices, shipping documents, financial statements, and other documents that were ultimately submitted to Ex-Im Bank to insure the financial transaction.

Three people were charged with wildlife smuggling and related charges for their alleged roles in an international rhino horn smuggling ring in Newark, Miami and New York City, the Justice Department said Feb. 13. Federal grand juries in Newark and Miami indicted Zhifei Li for international smuggling of rhinoceros horns. Shusen Wei, a 44 year old Chinese business executive and an associate of Li, was charged with offering to bribe a federal agent in the Li case. Qing Wang was charged a related criminal complaint in federal court in the Southern District of New York for his role in smuggling libation cups carved from rhinoceros horns from New York to Li via Hong Kong, Justice said.

XL Specialty Insurance Company is appealing the Court of International Trade’s Jan. 2 ruling ordering payment of $1,826,531.80 in liquidated damages from lumber importer Millenium Lumber Distribution as a result of its failure to obtain export permits from the Canadian government, as required by the Softwood Lumber Agreement. XL Specialty Insurance was Millenium’s surety, and is liable for the damages. The surety is specifically appealing the court’s assessment of prejudgment interest.

The former president and CEO of GEM Manufacturing was ordered Feb. 7 to pay $1.1 million in fines and perform community service for his role in the illegal trade of protected black coral, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ashu Bhandari of the U.S. Virgin Islands pleaded guilty Nov. 7 to one count of false classification of goods. The black pearl imported from Taiwan was classified as “plastic” after GEM Manufacturing was unable to obtain legitimate CITES certificates, it said.

Alden Leeds appealed the Court of International Trade’s dismissal of its challenge of CBP’s deemed liquidation of its entries despite suspension of liquidation during an antidumping administrative review. CBP liquidated the entries at AD rate in effect from the previous administrative review, without waiting for the results of the ongoing review that eventually returned a lower AD rate. CIT had originally ruled in favor of Alden Leeds, finding that the liquidation did not actually occur because conditions for deemed liquidations were not met and liquidation was suspended. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned, agreeing with the government that the legality of the liquidation was irrelevant, and Alden Leeds was required to file a protest of the deemed liquidation to challenge it in court. The Supreme Court subsequently denied the case a hearing, and CIT dismissed the case in December.

The Court of International Trade accepted the remand redetermination of the 2008-09 antidumping duty administrative review of polyethylene retail carrier bags from Thailand (A-549-821), finding the International Trade Administration’s explanation of zeroing to be adequate, and a shift in how it applied the “transactions disregarded” rule for calculation of constructed value to be reasonable. Thai Bags Plastic Industries’ AD rate rose to 21.29 percent (from 2015 percent) as a result. CIT had remanded the final results in June.

The Court of International Trade is making “technical amendments” to its Forms 17 (Business Proprietary Information Certification) (here) and 18 (Notification of Termination of Access to Business Proprietary Information Pursuant To Rule 73.2(c)) (here), as well as its appendix of forms (here). On each form, references to “the Appendix on Access to Business Proprietary Information Pursuant to Rule 73.2(c) to the Rules” would be amended to refer to Administrative Order No. 02-01. The changes are effective March 1.

Fischer and Citrosuco appealed a Dec. 6 Court of International Trade ruling sustaining the final results of the 2009-10 antidumping duty administrative review of orange juice from Brazil (A-351-840). The Brazilian company and its affiliated U.S. importer had argued that the ITA improperly (1) included bunker fuel surcharges in Fischer’s surrogate freight rate; (2) used window period sales in calculating Fischer’s constructed value for certain months of the period of review; and (3) used zeroing to calculate Fischer’s dumping margin. The court had found against the companies on all issues.