Domestic producers of honey, mushrooms, garlic and crawfish sued the U.S. government and multiple import sureties, citing both the failure of the U.S. trade agencies to collect, liquidate and distribute new shipper antidumping duties, and the failure of the sureties for Chinese food product shippers to require and fulfill sufficient bond guarantees. While the appeals court largely upheld a 2010 decision by the CIT dismissing all of the plaintiffs’ claims, the CAFC did overrule the lower court in concluding that the CIT’s jurisdiction could not extend to disputes between the domestic producers and sureties, as they are two non-governmental parties.
On February 17, 2012, the Justice Department announced that Jeng "Jay" Shih was sentenced to 18 months in prison, while his company, Sunrise Technologies and Trading Corporation, was sentenced to 24 months corporate probation for conspiracy to illegally export U.S.-origin computers to Iran through the United Arab Emirates in violation of the Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The Court of International Trade has ruled that Rack Room Shoes, SKIZ Imports LLC, and Forever 21, Inc., which had challenged the constitutionality of certain tariff provisions of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) on the grounds that the tariffs unconstitutionally discriminate by gender and age, did not plausibly demonstrate government intent to discriminate, dismissing the case with prejudice.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on February 16, 2012 that Mustafa Abdul Aljaff, owner of MVP Micro and other companies operating in California, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiring to sell counterfeit integrated circuits to the U.S. military, defense contractors and others. According to government evidence, he was the mastermind and leader of the highly sophisticated fraud scheme to import, sell, manufacture and distribute, in interstate and international commerce, counterfeit integrated circuits between September 2007 and August 2009.
On February 16, 2012, the Justice Department announced that Massound Habibion, co-owner of Online Micro LLC, pleaded guilty to willfully conspiring to illegally export computers from the U.S. to Iran through the United Arab Emirates without a license or government authorization, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Additionally, Mohsen Motamedian, another co-owner of Online Micro, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed the International Trade Commission’s assessment of civil penalties against Ninestar1 for failure to comply with cease and desist orders and a consent order2 issued in the original investigation of certain ink cartridges and components thereof (337-TA-565).
On February 14, 2012, the American Trucking Associations announced it filed a new lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s December 2011 final rule that makes the hours-of-service (HOS) regulations for commercial truck drivers more restrictive. ATA President and CEO Bill Graves states that the safety benefits of the HOS changes are outweighed by its costs, and that limited government and industry resources should instead focus on safety initiatives that will have a greater impact on highway safety. This filing at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia comes just weeks before the final rule takes effect on February 27, though a number of its provisions have a delayed compliance date of July 1, 2013.
On February 15, 2012, the Federal Maritime Commission announced that five compromise agreements have been reached for a total of $490,000 in civil penalties for alleged violations of the Shipping Act. The agreements were reached with eight non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs) and related companies providing ocean transportation services.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has released Enforcement Information for February 7, 2012 on a civil penalty for Teledyne Technologies Inc. According to OFAC, Teledyne Technologies Incorporated and its subsidiary, Teledyne RD Instruments, Inc. (“Teledyne”), have agreed to pay a mitigated $30,385 civil penalty to settle allegations of violations of the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations.
On February 8, 2012, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced that Hanjuan Jin, a former software engineer for Motorola, Inc. (now Motorola Solutions, Inc.) was found guilty of stealing Motorola trade secrets. Jin, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, possessed more than 1,000 electronic and paper Motorola proprietary documents when she was stopped by U.S. customs officials as she attempted to travel on a one-way ticket to China in February 2007.