Paulo Perez-Mendoza of Stockton, California, was charged March 28 with conspiracy to "receive and sell smuggled pesticides" into the U.S., the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California announced.
A consumer filed suit in New York on March 27 alleging that the aluminum foil brand Reynolds, which her complaint called “a staple of Americana,” harmed consumers by falsely advertising that its foil was made in the U.S. (Anaya Washington v. Reynolds Consumer Products LLC, S.D.N.Y. # 24-02327).
The U.S. brought a customs penalty suit against importer E-Dong U.S.A. for failure to pay federal excise tax on entries of soju bottles from South Korea. Filing a complaint March 28 at the Court of International Trade, the government said that the company entered the soju, a Korean spirit, via "material or false statement" by failing to reference any of the owed excise tax (U.S. v. E-Dong, U.S.A., CIT # 24-00066).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 18-24:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 11-17:
Mosaic tile importer Akua Mosaics and its president, Kenneth Fleming, pleaded guilty on March 19 to conspiring to smuggle Chinese-made porcelain mosaic tiles into the U.S., the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico announced.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed a lawsuit from clothing company Smart Apparel (U.S.) that accused Nordstrom of breaching a contract when it canceled orders from Smart Apparel that were suspected of being made with forced labor (Smart Apparel (U.S.) v. Nordstrom, W.D. Wash. # 23-01754).
Arthur "Jack" Schubarth, a Montana rancher, pleaded guilty March 12 to conspiring to violate the Lacey Act and to violating the Lacey Act by illegally importing wildlife from Kyrgyzstan, DOJ announced. Schubarth worked for nearly a decade as part of a scheme to "create giant sheep hybrids" in the U.S. with the goal of selling them to "captive hunting facilities," DOJ said. He faces a maximum of five years in prison for each count and a fine of up to $250,000.
Generic drugmaker KVK Research pleaded guilty last week to charges that it "introduced adulterated drugs into interstate commerce" in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, agreeing to pay $1.5 million in fines and forfeiture, DOJ announced.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 4-10: