Corporations need be careful and exercise due care when establishing their supply chains, said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim while speaking Dec. 14 at the American Bar Association's National Environmental Enforcement Conference's Section on Environment, Energy and Resources. Kim discussed the DOJ's enforcement approach and mentioned the Lacey Act as an example. "If a corporate supply chain originates from a criminally-tainted source, then my division will consider the criminal responsibility of all parts of that supply chain," Kim said. "A corporation seeking credit for cooperation will need to identify all individuals involved in misconduct, including individuals outside the company in a supply chain. ... A corporation would be well advised to protect itself and its investments by exercising due care over its supply chain in light of the prospect of criminal sanction; the potential seizure and forfeiture of illegally-sourced timber, goods, vessels and other equipment; and the unavailability of an innocent owner defense."

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 29 - Dec. 5:

The chief financial officer of trucking and logistics company Roadrunner Transportation Systems until 2017, Peter Armbruster, was sentenced to two years in prison "for his role in a complex securities and accounting fraud scheme," the Department of Justice said in a Dec. 1 news release. "Evidence presented at trial showed that Armbruster inflated Roadrunner’s reported income by misrepresenting Roadrunner’s expenses. His actions caused the investing public to lose tens of millions of dollars when Roadrunner eventually announced that it would need to restate its previously filed financial statements, triggering a sharp drop in the company’s stock," DOJ said. "On July 29, following an 11-day trial, a jury convicted Armbruster of four counts of violating federal securities laws, including misleading a public company’s auditors, securities fraud, and keeping false books and records." Armbruster was indicted in 2019 (see 1904040023).

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 22-28:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 15-21:

The Court of International Trade again struck down the Trump administration's withdrawal of an exclusion from the Section 201 solar safeguard measures for bifacial solar panels, in its second opinion rejecting Trump administration's elimination of the exclusion as many days. Judge Gary Katzmann found that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's exclusion withdrawal was an "arbitrary and capricious agency decision" and represented a move with no statutory authority. Just a day earlier, Katzmann ruled against a presidential proclamation attempting to withdraw the bifacial panel exclusion, which came as a direct response to the CIT's preliminary injunction in the case over the USTR's move.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 8-14:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 1-7:

Herdade Lokua and Jospin Mujangi, both of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were arrested and indicted for trafficking elephant ivory and white rhinoceros horn from the Congo to Seattle, the Department of Justice said. The pair allegedly worked with a middleman to bring in four packages that contained the ivory and rhinoceros horn. All four were sent via air freight, with three arriving in August and September 2020, and the remaining one in May 2021. Lokua and Mujangi also conspired to send large packages via ocean freight. The shipments in this scheme allegedly included elephant ivory, pangolin scales and rhinoceros horns. The pair cut the tusks and horn into smaller pieces that were painted black to avoid detection. The parts were mixed with ebony wood and declared as "wood" with values of $50-$60, DOJ said. The duo also allegedly paid bribes to local authorities in Kinshasa, the city where they live, to get the goods out of the Congo. Lokua and Mujangi now stand accused of conspiracy, money laundering, smuggling and Lacey Act violations, facing a maximum of 20 years in prison for the smuggling and money laundering charges and five years for the Lacey Act and conspiracy violations.

CBP did not violate importer Diamond Tools Technology's due process rights when it found that the company evaded antidumping duties on diamond sawblades from China, the Court of International Trade said in an Oct. 29 opinion, made public Nov. 5. However, Judge Timothy Reif did remand the case to CBP, finding that the actual finding of evasion was not supported as there was no "material and false statement" made by DTT. The judge also upheld CBP's authority to find that DTT's entries that pre-dated the start date of a related anti-circumvention inquiry are "covered merchandise."