The Bureau of Industry and Security has denied Kue Sang Chun's export privileges for five years after he pleaded guilty in January 2011 to exporting defense articles on the USML to South Korea without first obtaining an export license or written authorization from the State Department and other charges. He was sentenced in November 2011 to 14 months in prison. (See ITT's Online Archives 11012519) BIS also decided to revoke all licenses issued pursuant to the Act or Regulations in which Chun had an interest at the time of his conviction, it said in a Federal Register notice scheduled for Dec. 5. Chun is in federal prison in Loretto, Pa.

The Court of International Trade remanded the use of India as the surrogate country for valuation of inputs for Chinese companies in the 2009-10 antidumping administrative review of certain frozen warmwater shrimp from China (A-570-893). Plaintiffs Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee (AHSTAC) argued that the International Trade Administration should have used Thailand instead. CIT ruled that the ITA’s explanation that it followed its policy was not good enough, and that it needed to come back with a better explanation.

The Court of International Trade affirmed a recalculation of the all others rate determined in the countervailing duty investigation of aluminum extrusions from China (C-570-968), after having remanded the International Trade Administration’s “unreasonable” 374.15 percent rate twice previously. The all others CV rate had been based on 100% use of all subsidy programs alleged in the petition, because it was derived from the adverse facts available rates assigned to the mandatory respondents. In its recalculation, the ITA cut down on the number of subsidy programs used to set the rate for the all others companies, finding a CV rate of 137.65 percent. CIT also affirmed the all others CV rate from the preliminary determination.

A Mexican drug trafficking organization has been declared a drug kingpin, and a San Diego customs broker will spend eight years in prison, in connection with a scheme to illegally import and distribute ephedrine for use in making methamphetamine, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The customs broker, Antonio Gonzalez of San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, also forfeited most of the $4 million seized in the investigation. Gonzalez was sentenced in 2011.

After spending over 23 years as a fugitive, Isidoro “Mario” Garbarino pleaded guilty to one count of falsely classifying imported goods, as well as one count of making false statements, in connection with the illegal import of over 100,000 pounds of Russian and Iranian caviar valued at over $10 million, the Justice Department said. Garbarino, an Italian citizen, charged and indicted in 1987, fled the country while on bail in 1989, and was finally arrested by U.S. Marshals in September 2012. Having already agreed to make restitution of $3 million for unpaid duties and related penalties and interest, Garbarino also faces a maximum of four years in prison at sentencing, DOJ said.

Hubbell Incorporated appealed the International Trade Commission’s Sept. 20 determination not to modify a general exclusion order on certain ground fault circuit interrupters and products containing same (337-TA-739) to say the order doesn’t apply to Hubbell’s products. Hubbell was not a party to the Section 337 patent investigation, but argued that it did not participate because complainant Leviton only said its products infringed Leviton’s patents after the order was issued. But the ITC noted it can only modify a general exclusion order if it finds the circumstances surrounding its issuance have changed, and said Hubbell’s participation in the investigation would not have affected whether it would have issued the order.

A Chinese citizen was sentenced to 16 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release for understating the value of goods imported into the U.S. from China to avoid paying antidumping duties, reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement. From 2006 to 2010, Jin Qing Huang controlled Woncity and other companies that imported merchandise including plastic bags and other restaurant supplies from China, ICE said. Huang and Woncity operated warehouses in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. The bags were presumably subject to the antidumping duty order on polyethylene retail carrier bags from China, although ICE did not specify which AD order applied. Plastic bags exported from China and covered by that order are subject to a 77.57 percent antidumping duty, ICE said.

Some 132 domain names that were allegedly illegally selling counterfeit merchandise online to unsuspecting consumers were seized in raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and law enforcement agencies from Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania and the U.K., and the European Police Office (Europol), they said. The websites were set up to dupe consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods as part of the holiday shopping season, the agencies said. The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, recognizing the global nature of Internet crime, partnered with Europol, who, through its member countries, executed coordinated seizures of foreign-based top-level domains such as .eu, .be, .dk, .fr, .ro and .uk. In addition to the domain name seizures, officials identified PayPal accounts utilized by the infringing websites. Proceeds received through the identified PayPal accounts, in excess of $175,000, are being targeted for seizure by the investigators.

The Court of International Trade rejected most of a challenge to the 2011 final determination in the antidumping duty investigation of drill pipe from China (A-570-965), but remanded the International Trade Administration’s surrogate values for drill pipe green tube and labor. CIT remanded the labor surrogate value because the ITA didn’t distinguish between producers and “significant producers” in its average of wage rates in 31 countries. The ITA agreed to the remand in light of recent court rulings against the methodology.

The Court of International Trade accepted the results of a remand of the 2008-09 antidumping administrative review of pure magnesium from China (A-570-832), and ordered Chinese plaintiff Tianjin Magnesium International to pay the costs of the court proceeding. TMI committed fraud during the AD review in an attempt to obtain lower dumping margins, and continued its misleading conduct during the court case by continuing to argue points that it had failed to exhaust during the review, CIT said. “TMI’s actions constitute a frivolous drain of the court’s resources…” CIT said. “TMI’s actions will not be tolerated in future proceedings before this court.”