Jovana Samaniego Deas, a former special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison following a multi-agency investigation that revealed she illegally accessed, stole and transferred sensitive U.S. government documents to unauthorized individuals and obstructed investigations, ICE said. In her plea hearing, Deas had admitted to abusing her position as a special agent to illegally obtain and disseminate government documents classified as "For Official Use Only." According to ICE, some of the sensitive information Deas accessed was later discovered by Brazilian law enforcement on the laptop computer of her former brother-in-law, who has ties to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and Brazil.

The Court of International Trade sustained the International Trade Administration’s second remand redetermination of the final results of the 2005-06 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products (A-533-820). This second remand redetermination, which was ordered by CIT in April (i) for application of the ITA’s new policy on adjusting cost of production in accordance with the adjustment to Indian company Essar Steel Limited’s export price resulting from its duty-drawback claim, and (ii) to allow for the correction of a ministerial error discovered by Essar and agreed to by the ITA, sets the AD rate for Essar at 9.01%, up from 5.22% in the original final results. No parties contested the second remand redetermination, so CIT sustained it.

Pratt & Whitney Canada, a Canadian subsidiary of the Connecticut-based defense contractor United Technologies pleaded guilty June 28 to violating the Arms Export Control Act and making false statements in connection with its illegal export to China of U.S.-origin military software used in the development of China's first modern military attack helicopter, the Z-10, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. United Technologies, its U.S.-based subsidiary Hamilton Sundstrand, and Pratt & Whitney Canada have all agreed to pay more than $75 million as part of a global settlement with the Justice Department and State Department in connection with the violations and for making false and belated disclosures to the U.S. government about these illegal exports, ICE said, of which up to $20 million can be suspended if applied by UTC to remedial compliance measures.

In a challenge of an International Trade Administration ruling that Chinese off-road tire manufacturer OTR Wheel Engineering, Inc.’s tires are within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain new pneumatic off-the-road tires from China (A-570-912 / C-570-913), the Court of International Trade remanded the issue to the ITA to complete a full scope inquiry.

The Court of International Trade ruled that a challenge to the International Trade Administration’s exclusion (because of a zero rate) of a Chinese company from the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China (A-570-970) was untimely filed, but said it would not dismiss the case because of questions, in light of recent Supreme Court and appellate court rulings, regarding (i) whether the relevant time requirements preclude jurisdiction and (ii) the possibility of equitable tolling. CIT ordered further briefing to address these issues.

Richard Phillips, 54, of the Bronx, NY, was sentenced to 92 months in prison for attempting to export high-technology commodities to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement reported. According to court documents, in October 2011, Phillips offered his services and expertise in exporting a spool of carbon fiber to Tehran, Iran, via the Philippines, in violation of the U.S. trade embargo against Iran. The two main applications of carbon fiber are in specialized technology, including aerospace and nuclear engineering, and in general engineering and transportation. In a recorded telephone conversation with an undercover special agent, Phillips was warned that the export of the carbon fiber to Iran was illegal under the trade embargo, ICE said.

In a challenge of CBP’s customs classification of “gold leaf vials” with a gold plated cap imported from China, the Court of International Trade ruled in favor of plaintiff Salem Minerals Inc. CBP had originally classified plaintiff’s “small glass vial filled with clear liquid and a small quantity of gold leaf fragments, topped with a ‘theme’ cap featuring a small figurine, and affixed with a label” under Harmonized Tariff Schedule 2005 subheading 7114.90.00 (“Articles of goldsmiths’…wares...': Of other precious metal whether or not plated or clad with precious metal”), dutiable at 7.9%. CIT ruled that the product was instead properly classified under 7115.90.30 (“Other articles of precious metal…: Other…Other: Of gold, including metal clad with gold”), dutiable at 3.9%.

The Court of International Trade remanded, in part, the final results of the 2008-09 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on polyethylene retail carrier bags from Thailand (A-549-821) in order for the International Trade Administration to reconsider its use of zeroing (on voluntary remand), as well as for the ITA to reconsider its cost adjustment for an input sourced from an affiliated supplier. CIT affirmed the ITA’s final results in all other respects.

The Court of International Trade sustained the International Trade Administration’s second redo of the final results from the 2004-05 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on heavy forged hand tools, finished or unfinished, with or without handles, from China (A-570-803). CIT had previously said the Adverse Facts Available (AFA) rates of (a) 139.31% applied to Shandong Huarong Machinery Co.’s sales of bars/wedges; and (b) 98.77% applied to Tianjin Machinery Import & Export Co.’s sales of picks/mattocks, were insufficiently corroborated. This time, CIT sustained the ITA’s recalculation of the AFA rates at (a) 47.88%, and (b) 32.15%, respectively, as sufficiently corroborated.

The nearly complete skeleton of a dinosaur was forfeited to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE said. The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Bataar was looted from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, ICE said, and this forfeiture is the first step to the hopeful repatriation of the fossil to Mongolia. According to ICE, the skeleton was imported into the U.S. from the United Kingdom, and the customs importation documents contained several misstatements.