The Court of International Trade has ruled against U.S. Customs and Border Protection's claim that customs broker Robert E. Landweer & Co. was liable to pay a $30,000 penalty for filing entries with incorrect dumping duty deposit rates and incorrectly identifying the supplier of the merchandise. The CIT dismissed the case as CBP did not specify the customs regulations Landweer violated and therefore failed to sufficiently exhaust administrative remedies.
The U.S. Embassy in Singapore has welcomed a February 10, 2012 ruling by a Singapore court in favor of the extradition of four Singaporeans who have been charged in the U.S. for violations involving the unlawful export of military antennas and radio frequency modules from the U.S. These components were later found in improvised explosive devices (IED) found in Iraq. The four Singaporeans, as well as one other person and four firms, were indicted for these charges in October 2011. Also in October 2011, the Bureau of Industry and Security added 15 parties located in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and Iran to the Entity List for their engagement in schemes or facilitation of the diverting of U.S.-origin items through deceptive actions, including shifting/circuitous routes and false or omitted information on shipping documentation.
The Justice Department has announced that Seafood Solutions Inc., a California corporation, was sentenced to pay $1 million in fines and community service payments for its role in the false labeling of frozen fish fillets. The corporation was fined $700,000 and ordered to make a community service donation of $300,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The company was also sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to forfeit all remaining inventory of the falsely labeled fish and develop and implement a corporate compliance plan.
On February 8, 2011, the Justice Department announced that five individuals and five companies have been charged with economic espionage and theft of trade secrets for their roles in a long-running effort to obtain U.S. trade secrets for the benefit of companies controlled by the Chinese government.
On February 6, 2011, the Justice Department announced that Ulrich Davis, a former manager of a Netherlands-based freight-forwarding company, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the U.S. by violating a Bureau of Industry and Security Temporary Denial Order and facilitating the illegal export of goods to Iran. The count to which Davis pleaded guilty carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is currently scheduled for May 15, 2012.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has announced that three companies agreed to pay a total of $ 35,200 in civil penalties to settle allegations that each violated the antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The companies are JAS Forwarding Inc., Rexnord Industries LLC, and Weiss-Rohlig USA LLC.
On February 6, 2012, the Justice Department announced that it entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with Smith & Nephew Inc., a medical device company, to resolve improper payments the company and certain of its affiliates allegedly made physicians employed by government institutions, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
The Court of International Trade has upheld the determination by the International Trade Commission to deny the status of an “affected domestic producer” or ADP to Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. because in a 2003 questionnaire response, the firm expressed opposition to the AD petition on wooden bedroom furniture from China.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on January 30, 2012 that Manuel Gomez Barba was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison for illegally exporting firearms, one of which was used to murder an ICE special agent in 2011.
The Justice Department has announced that two Japanese suppliers of automotive electrical components -- Yazaki Corporation and DENSO Corporation -- have agreed to plead guilty and pay a total of $548 million in criminal fines for their involvement in multiple price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracies in the sale of parts to automobile manufacturers in the U.S. Four executives, all Japanese nationals, have also agreed to plead guilty and to serve prison time in the U.S.