Mexican exporter Mueller (Mueller Comercial de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.) and its U.S. importer Southland (Southland Pipe Nipples Co., Inc.), challenged the International Trade Administration’s assignment of an adverse facts-available AD duty rate higher than the all-others rate, in the AD administrative review of certain circular welded non-alloy steel pipe from Mexico for the November 2007- October 2008 period. The Court of International Trade agreed that the higher rate was unsupported.

On December 20, 2011, the Justice Department announced that Shaoxiong Zhou, a Chinese perfume importer, was sentenced to 12 months in prison and ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution for trafficking in counterfeit perfume.

On December 20, 2011, the Justice Department announced that it has entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Aon Corporation, a publicly traded corporation and one of the largest insurance brokerage firms in the world, to resolve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). As part of the agreement, Aon has agreed to pay a $1.76 million penalty. Aon has also separately agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission approximately $14.5 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.

Since the AD duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from China excludes benches but includes chests, importer Legacy Classic Furniture, Inc. challenged a finding by the International Trade Administration that the company’s combination bench-chests are included in the order. Among other factors it cited, the ITA reasoned that although the product has a padded top which purchasers could use for seating, the box design and cedar-lined storage unit were the item’s defining characteristics.

Vietnamese exporters challenged determinations by the International Trade Administration in the AD administrative review of certain frozen warm water shrimp from Vietnam for the February 2007 - January 2008 period. Notably, Viet Hai Seafood Co., Ltd., doing business as Vietnam Fish One Co., Ltd. challenged the ITA’s refusal to revoke the firm’s inclusion in the AD order despite zero dumping margins for three consecutive years. Fish One argued that: 1) the ITA’s regulations obliged it to perform individual reviews of companies requesting revocation based on achieving three years of zero or de minimis dumping margins, 2) the mandatory selection process, which was limited to only three exporters, was flawed and 3) the zero dumping margin it was assigned in the final results entitled it to revocation.

On December 1, 2011, a California District Court decided to throw out convictions and dismiss a superseding indictment that charged Lindsey Manufacturing Company (LMC) and two of its executives, Keith Lindsey and Steve Lee,¹ for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Court ordered this decision due to Government misconduct and reckless failure to comply with its duties during the course of the trial.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has announced three people have been sentenced for violations of the Lacey Act for illegally selling and transporting walrus ivory and polar bear hides between July 2010 and April 2011. The defendants purchased the parts in Alaska and illegally sold and transported them to other states and countries. One defendant was sentenced to 108 months imprisonment, another to 42 months imprisonment, and the last defendant to three years of probation from hunting and other business related to wildlife.

In a December 13, 2011 press release, the Justice Department announced that three Korean Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. (HLDS) executives have agreed to plead guilty, serve prison time in the U.S., and pay a $25,000 criminal fine each for their participation in a series of conspiracies to rig bids and fix prices for the sale of optical disk drives.

In Applikon Biotechnology, Inc. v. U.S., the Court of International Trade ruled against U.S. Customs and Border Protection's classification of certain Bioreactor Systems under HTS heading 8419 as machinery that treats materials through temperature change. The CIT held instead that the Bioreactor Systems are classified as other machinery under heading 8479 because their principal function is to grow cells, not to regulate temperature, and this function is not specified elsewhere in Chapter 84.

According to a December 13, 2011 Justice Department press release, eight former executives and agents of Siemens AG and its subsidiaries have been charged and have agreed to pay more than $448.5 million in fines for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The defendants allegedly engaged in a scheme to bribe senior Argentine government officials to secure a $1 billion contract to produce national identity cards.