The State Department ordered Barrington, N.J.-based Bright Lights to pay a $400,000 civil penalty to settle 11 charges related to illicit exports of technical drawings and a failure to maintain and provide required records, in alleged violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), according to State documents posted Sept. 12. Prior to Feb. 19, 2013, Bright Lights’ business practice was to create “redacted” versions of technical drawings for products it wanted to outsource, according to State’s proposed charging letter. The company prepared the drawings by “removing any export control language” and transferring the rest of the drawings, in whole or in part, onto a company-labeled and formatted page. After complete, Bright Lights would send the modified page for manufacture or post it online to solicit quotations, State said.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 4-10:

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is denying export privileges for three individuals for export control law violations, the agency said. BIS removed export privileges for Ambar Morales until March 23, 2021, which will be five years after the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona convicted her of attempting to export 7,942 rounds of ammunition designated on the U.S. Munitions List (USML) without a required State Department license, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, BIS said. BIS removed export privileges for Dmitrii Karpenko until April 28, 2022, after he was convicted April 28, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York for conspiring to export microelectronics items controlled under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to Russia with no State/BIS license, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). BIS also eliminated export privileges for Alexey Krutilin until April 28, 2027, after he was convicted on April 28, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York for conspiring to export EAR-controlled microelectronics items to Russia without the required State/BIS license, in violation of IEEPA.

An importer’s lawsuit on the tariff classification of child bicycle seats will proceed unchecked, after the Court of International Trade on Sept. 8 denied the government’s bid to dismiss portions of the case. Kent International says CBP defied its own established practice and did not afford Kent the same treatment given to other importers when it classified entries of Kent’s WeeRide Kangaroo child bicycle seats in heading 8417, dutiable at 10 percent, rather than a duty-free provision of subheading 9401.80. Though CBP had issued Kent a ruling in 2005 that the merchandise was dutiable at the higher rate, it had subsequently granted two of Kent’s protests and issued several rulings to other importers finding similar merchandise duty-free. The trade court found Kent’s complaint adequately raised questions of whether CBP’s decision to reliquidate subsequent entries at the 10% rate, before its eventual revocation of the other importers’ rulings through Customs Bulletin notices and comment, may have run against the agency’s own established practice and treatment.

An importer of gray market batteries currently embroiled in a customs lawsuit with Duracell cannot use an anonymous pseudonym to protect itself from trademark suits in other courts, the Court of International Trade said in a decision issued Sept. 12. Recently having ruled that the anonymous “XYZ Corporation” can challenge Duracell’s lever rule protections against gray market imports (see 1707240031), the court held the company must give up its pseudonym and file a new complaint with its true identity.

Undercover federal agents posing as buyers of counterfeit cigarettes from India led to federal charges against two Indian citizens, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a recent news release. Abhishek Shukla and Harish Shabhai Panchal and two companies were charged with conspiring to smuggle the counterfeit cigarettes, the Justice Department said. The defendants allegedly worked to send cigarettes to the U.S. from India that were fraudulently labeled as Newport cigarettes, it said. The agents negotiated sales of three containers worth of the counterfeit cigarettes, which were all seized by CBP at the Port of Miami over the last year. The cigarettes would be worth over $4 million if real, the DOJ said. The agents and the defendants also met in Miami in August. "During the recorded meeting, they advised the agents that they had been partners for twelve years and personally oversaw the production of all the product being offered," the DOJ said. "They also assured the agents that they could counterfeit any American-made menthol cigarette with no problem, as well as other trademarked brands and that they could produce tobacco blends which would closely match the legitimate product."

The Commerce Department didn't "adequately discuss the record evidence" submitted in support of Agilent's position in a scope ruling on mass filter radiators made by Agilent Technologies, the Court of International Trade said in a Sept. 1 ruling. The MFRs were the subject of a scope ruling last year (see 1608220063), in which Commerce said the products are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China. Commerce must reconsider the issue as a result of the CIT decision.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 28 - Sept. 3:

A Chinese national on Aug. 31 was sentenced in a Manhattan federal court to three years in jail in connection with a scheme to conduct unauthorized exports to China of high-grade carbon fiber, primarily used in aerospace and military applications, the Justice Department announced. The scheme by Fuyi Sun to export the fiber without a license violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, DOJ said. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein imposed the sentence Aug. 31 after Sun pleaded guilty on April 21. Since about 2011, Sun attempted to acquire “extremely high-grade carbon fiber,” contacting what he believed was a distributor of the commodity but which was actually an “undercover entity” created by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Homeland Security Investigations, DOJ said. Sun “suggested” the Chinese military was the ultimate end-user for the carbon fiber he sought to acquire, DOJ said, and on April 12, 2016, bought two cases of M60 from the undercover entity for $25,000. He was arrested the next day.

The Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service acted within its authority when it issued rules for imports of species of seafood the agency has deemed high-risk, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in an Aug. 28 ruling. The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and individual seafood importers and processors filed the lawsuit to challenge the rule, which was issued in December last year and includes new ACE filing requirements at time of entry beginning in January 2018 (see 1612080014). The companies said the NMFS undercounted the burdens to industry of the and rule and that only the Food and Drug Administration has the statutory authority to regulate seafood fraud. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta disagreed with those arguments and ruled in favor of the government.