The U.S. Court of International Trade granted the U.S. government's motion to dismiss Acme Furniture Industry, Inc. vs. the U.S., in a decision July 18. The government had said Acme failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, but Acme said it was challenging an erroneous reliquidation by the CBP, so its challenge falls within section 1581(a).

Geoffrey B. Roose, of Corvallis, Ore., was sentenced Friday to 10 months in federal prison for attempting to sell export restricted military-grade equipment to overseas buyers in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Roose had pleaded guilty in March. According to court documents, investigators sent a message via eBay advising Roose that the scopes he was auctioning were restricted for export to which Roose responded with "Thanks." Despite the warning, he didn't end his auction, ICE said. Undercover ICE special agents then purchased one of the military-grade rifle scopes and had it shipped to a European address. Roose shipped the order, which was seized before it left the country, ICE said. On the customs declaration, Roose identified the $1,700 scope as "telescope w/Mount" valued at $150.

The Court of International Trade dismissed Nan Ya Plastics Corporation’s bid for monetary benefits under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, aka the Byrd Amendment). Nan Ya had originally been a petitioner in the 1999 antidumping investigations of polyester staple fiber from Korea and Taiwan, but withdrew its support mid-investigation. CIT ruled that the International Trade Commission’s exclusion of Nan Ya from the affected domestic producer (ADP) list of firms eligible for CDSOA benefits was in accordance with the law and, as has been the case in past CIT decisions, dismissed Nan Ya’s First Amendment free speech claims and Fifth Amendment equal protection claims as foreclosed by the precedent of the court of appeals’ ruling in SKF v. U.S. CIT also said the retroactivity of CDSOA (domestic companies did not know that non-support of the petition would prevent CDSOA funds distribution at the time of the investigation) does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment because Congress had a rational legislative purpose. (CIT Slip Op. 12-92, dated 07/12/12, Judges Carman, Stanceu, and Gordon)

The International Trade Commission’s denial of eligibility for benefits under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, aka the Byrd Amendment) for U.S. crawfish producer PS Chez Sidney was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The ITC had originally ruled Chez Sidney ineligible in 2002, only to reverse its decision pursuant to a 2007 Court of International Trade remand after CIT said the petition support requirement of CDSOA violated the First Amendment. Then, in 2010, ITC once again found Chez Sidney ineligible for benefits after CAFC reversed CIT’s 2007 remand because of CAFC’s SKF v. USA ruling, which had found that the petition support requirement was constitutional. In this ruling, CAFC also remanded CBP’s decision, made during the 2007-2010 period during which Chez Sidney was found eligible, to only distribute benefits to Chez Sidney to the extent that the already distributed benefits were recoverable from other domestic producers.

Two men accused of creating a global network of shell companies to deceive U.S. companies into supplying nuclear-related materials to Iran were indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia, reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to a superseding indictment made public Friday, Iranian national Parviz Khaki and Chinese national Zongcheng Yi allegedly attempted to obtain and illegally export U.S.-origin materials to Iran that can be used to construct, operate and maintain gas centrifuges to enrich uranium, ICE said. This includes materials such as maraging steel, aluminum alloys, mass spectrometers, vacuum pumps and other items. Khaki is also accused of conspiring to procure radioactive source materials from the U. S. for customers in Iran, said ICE.

The Department of Justice reported the unsealing of charges against Saeed Talebi, an Iranian national arrested July 12 in connection with a scheme to illegally export from the United States to Iran parts and goods designed for use in industrial operations. According to the indictment, on numerous occasions throughout 2011, Talebi and others worked to ship industrial parts and goods from United States-based firms to Dubai, acting through a company identified in the Indictment as “Company-1.” These items were then to be sent to various petrochemical companies located in Iran without the required OFAC export license, DOJ said. In the course of this scheme, Talebi also caused money to be wired to the United States, including over $300,000 sent to a bank account in Manhattan.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized 70 websites that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise by mimicking legitimate websites selling authentic merchandise and duping consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods that were imported from abroad, it said. According to ICE, Many of the websites so closely resembled the legitimate websites that it would be difficult for even the most discerning consumer to tell the difference.

Great Western Malting Co. of Vancouver, Wash., agreed to pay $1,347,750 to settle apparent violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, said the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The apparent violations occurred between August 2006 and March 2009, when Great Western performed back-office functions for the sales by a foreign affiliate of non-U.S. origin barley malt to Cuba. OFAC said the apparent violations constitute a non-egregious case. It did say that Great Western did not have an adequate OFAC compliance program in place at the time of the violations and some of the violations involved transactions with Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) in Cuba. But it said Great Western has no history of prior OFAC violations, substantially cooperated with OFAC, and, if the subject goods had been shipped from the U.S., they would have been eligible for an OFAC license.

ADC Telecommunications Inc. will pay the U.S. government $1 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to federal agencies when it sold telecommunications goods manufactured in countries prohibited by the Trade Agreements Act, the Justice Department said. It said that from October 2005 to December 2008, ADC sold telecommunications hardware, such as communication modems, extender modules and shelf adapters to various federal agencies through its General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule contract that were knowingly manufactured in countries such as China that don't have reciprocal trade agreements with the U.S. and are not on the list of designated countries.

The Justice Department announced a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest of four fugitives allegedly involved in the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The announcement came July 9, as the indictment charging five individuals in the case was unsealed in Tucson.