A Puerto Rican man faces up to 10 years in prison after being found guilty by a jury on federal charges stemming from his role as a key operative for a drug ring that distributed large quantities of Chinese-made counterfeit pharmaceuticals throughout the U.S. and worldwide, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Francis Ortiz Gonzalez was convicted on one count of conspiracy and seven counts of trafficking in counterfeit pharmaceuticals. The indictment alleges Ortiz Gonzalez acted as U.S.-based distributor for a criminal enterprise, allegedly headed by Bo Jiang, a Chinese national whose last known residence is New Zealand. In January 2011, Jiang was taken into custody on a provisional arrest warrant by authorities in New Zealand, ICE said, but fled shortly after being released on bond.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Court of International Trade’s February 2011 decision against a customs broker that sought to compel CBP to issue a ruling on its protests. In its decision, CIT had said customs broker Norman G. Jensen still had an administrative remedy in the form of accelerated disposition to force a protest ruling, so CIT had no subject matter jurisdiction for lack of exhaustion. CAFC agreed with CIT, saying Jensen should have requested an accelerated disposition of the protest with CBP and filed suit under 28 USC 1581(a) should the protest have been deemed denied, rather than filing suit under 28 USC 1581(i) before the protest was decided.

Voidance requests do not extend the 180-day deadline for challenging CBP protest denials at the Court of International Trade, said CIT in its dismissal of plaintiff Sears Holdings Management’s customs classification challenge. Sears had filed a request with CBP to void denial of its classification protest, which was denied, and a protest of CBP’s denial of its voidance request, which CBP rejected on the grounds that voidance requests are not protestable. Sears then filed suit at CIT within the 180-day period after its voidance request protest was rejected, but more than 180 days after its original protest was denied. In its decision, CIT said it has no jurisdiction over the matter because (1) voidance requests do not extend the 180-day deadline for challenges of CBP protests, so Sears’ challenge of the original protest denial was untimely filed; and (2) denials of voidance requests are non-reviewable agency actions which cannot themselves be challenged at CIT. Therefore, CIT dismissed Sears’ challenge.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed part the Court of International Trade’s July 2010 dismissal of Ford’s request to liquidate and refund duties paid on ten reconciliation entries of imported Jaguar brand vehicles that Ford argued should have been deemed liquidated. In 2010, CIT had dismissed Ford’s claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and lack of controversy, and had declined to issue a judgment on other claims. CAFC reversed CIT’s jurisdiction ruling because CIT’s ruling was based on events that occurred after Ford filed its court complaint, reversed CIT’s dismissal for lack of controversy, and vacated CIT’s decision to dismiss other Ford claims.

A Hampton Roads-based multi-agency task force seized about 35 kilograms of cocaine at the Port of Norfolk in the past two weeks in separate drug smuggling ventures, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. On Aug. 4, the task force seized three kilograms of cocaine from a container vessel due into Hampton Roads. The seizure resulted in the arrest of two individuals, neither of whom were ship crewmembers, ICE said. The task force had already seized 32 kilograms of cocaine July 27, hidden in a cargo hold of a vessel arriving into the Port of Norfolk. ICE said it believes the cocaine, which has an estimated street value of $1 million, came from Colombia and was destined for Europe. None of the crewmembers from the ship involved in the July 27 seizure were suspected of being involved and no arrests were made.

The Court of International Trade delayed its decision in a case involving the International Trade Administration’s use of “zeroing” in administrative reviews, pending resolution of the appeal of CIT’s ruling in Union Steel v. U.S., currently before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Although plaintiffs and defendants opposed staying the case, which involves the final results of the 2009-10 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from India (A-533-840), CIT said the delay will serve the interest of judicial economy and will conserve the resources of the parties. According to CIT, neither plaintiffs nor defendant showed any harm that would have resulted from the stay.

The Court of International Trade denied CBP’s motion to reconsider its April dismissal of CBP’s attempt to recover penalties from defendant Nitek Electronics for misclassified entries of gas meter swivels and gas meter nuts from China that were subject to an antidumping duty order. In April, CIT had ruled that CBP failed to exhaust its administrative remedies because at the administrative stage CBP had alleged gross negligence, while before the court CBP alleged the lesser charge of negligence. This time, CIT found nothing new in CBP’s arguments for reconsideration. “A party’s disagreement with a ruling does not always equate to a ‘clear error’ warranting reconsideration,” CIT said. “More to the point, mere repetition of unsuccessful arguments is an improper use of Rule 59 and a needless delay to finality.”

Pfizer subsidiary Pfizer H.C.P. Corp. agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to resolve an investigation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth LLC also reached settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission under which Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay more than $26.3 million, including interest, to resolve concerns involving the conduct of its subsidiaries. Wyeth, which had been acquired by Pfizer Inc. in 2009, agreed to pay $18.8 million, including interest, to resolve concerns involving the conduct of Wyeth subsidiaries.

Antiques dealer David Hausman, 67, of New York City, pleaded guilty July 31 to obstruction of justice and creating false records in relation to illegal rhinoceros horn trafficking. The guilty plea was a result of an investigation which included U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigation. Hausman was arrested in February 2012 as part of "Operation Crash," and charged with Lacey Act violations.

The Court of International Trade remanded for the second time the final results of the 2006-07 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings and parts thereof from China (A-570-601). This time, CIT said there was nothing on the record that indicated Chinese plaintiff Peer Bearing Company-Changshan (which received a 92.84% AD rate in the original final results) was uncooperative, and therefore the ITA’s decision to apply an adverse facts available (AFA) AD rate of 60.95% on remand was unsupported. CIT also said the ITA’s decision not recalculate the surrogate values of three of plaintiff’s inputs was in violation of the first remand order, and reprimanded the ITA for failure to obey the court order.