On December 8, 2011, Prosecutor John Molinelli of Bergen County, New Jersey announced the arrest of George Ortega, a man accused of embezzling approximately $1.6 million from ARGIX Direct, doing business as Passport CFS Logistics. Passport Logistics was a wholly-owned business unit of ARGIX Direct, whose primary business involved the transportation of shipping containers from various ports located in the northeastern U.S. to the Passport Logistics facility for stripping and separating the cargo prior to being placed in containers or over the road trailers for shipment to various locations throughout the country. An investigation revealed that beginning in January 2003 and continuing through May 2011, Ortega acted in a collusive manner with others while conducting a series of fraudulent billing schemes in addition to engaging in the direct theft of cash payments meant for the company.

According to a December 8, 2011 Justice Department press release, two executives of Luxembourg-based Cargolux Airlines International S.A. have each pleaded guilty and agreed to serve 13 months in prison for participating in a conspiracy to fix cargo rates for international air shipments.

Two companies with a challenge to the International Trade Administration’s practice of zeroing (eliminating non-dumped sales from the margin calculation) pending at the Court of International Trade sought to delay the adjudication of their case until four other cases that address the same issue, and that are at a more advanced stage, are definitively resolved. The companies, Myonic GmbH and New Hampshire Ball Bearings, Inc., argued that a stay would “promote judicial economy and enable all parties to conserve resources.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued a December 8, 2011 press release stating that a Texas business owner has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of mail fraud and one count of trafficking in counterfeit circuit breakers. Elod Tamas "Nick" Toldy, 62, of Austin, Texas, owner and operator of Pioneer Breaker & Control Supply in Austin, and Nick's Sales, the business' online sales and marketing component, is scheduled to be sentenced in April.

The Justice Department has issued a December 5, 2011 press release announcing that Lin Feng Xu, an antique dealer in China, has pleaded guilty to smuggling and to violating the Endangered Species Act in connection with the illegal export of African elephant ivory in his carry-on luggage.

According to a December 6, 2011 Justice Department press release, two New Jersey men, Sanjay Anandani and Rohit Rohit, were charged in an indictment unsealed on December 1, 2011 in the Eastern District of New York, for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to import and traffic in counterfeit perfume.

After extended litigation and multiple appeals led to a negative injury determination by the International Trade Commission, a group of overseas producer/exporters of ball bearings and parts thereof sought to have the Court of international Trade force the International Trade Administration to 1) terminate suspension of liquidation, 2) issue liquidation instructions and return all cash deposits for entries from the United Kingdom entered on or after August 25, 2010, and 3) issue liquidation instructions and return all cash deposits for entries from Japan entered on or after March 1, 2011. (The companies in this group are JTEKT Corporation, Koyo Corporation U.S.A., NSK Corporation, NSK Ltd., and NSK Europe Ltd.: the court case lists NSK Corporation et al. as plaintiffs and FAG Italia S.p.A. et al. as plaintiff-intervenors.)

The Court of International Trade has issued new remand instructions in the May 2005-April 2006 AD duty administrative review of ball bearings and parts thereof from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, following an earlier decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that permitted the use of third-party costs for the first time under the order but required an explanation of the approach from the International Trade Administration.

Domestic producers Clearon Corporation and Occidental Chemical Corporation challenged the International Trade Administration’s decision to exclude surrogate company financial statements that it found were tainted by Indian Government subsidies, and thus rely on a single surrogate firm’s data, in the June 2008 - May 2009 AD administrative review of chlorinated isocyanurates from China.

The Justice Department states that a Miami Beach man, Enrique Gomez De Molina, who used various wildlife parts in taxidermy pieces that were offered for sale on the Internet, through galleries, and shows, has been charged in a criminal Information for knowingly transporting, possessing, and selling wildlife with a value greater than $350 in violation of the Lacey Act. If convicted, the defendant faces a possible maximum term of imprisonment of up to five years, criminal fines of up to $250,000, and a period of supervised release of up to three years. In addition, all specimens of wildlife trafficked in violation of the Lacey Act are subject to forfeiture.