Plea Agreement From Scheme Involving ISF Numbers Not Subject to Appeal, Court Says
A guilty plea related to trafficking of counterfeit goods that was filed as part of a plea agreement that limited appeals of the court's decision can't be appealed, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a July 17…
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decision. Xiao Xia Zhao pleaded guilty in 2018 in New Jersey district court due to her role in "receiving Importer Security Filing (ISF) numbers from one individual and then providing those ISF numbers to another individual" as part of a counterfeits trafficking scheme. "By providing that information, she assisted in ensuring the contents of the containers identified by the ISF numbers bypassed inspection by customs authorities," the court said. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release and then appealed the decision. Following the appeal, Zhao's lawyers requested to withdraw from the case because "the record shows Zhao’s plea was knowingly and voluntarily made." The appeals court found that "[b]ecause we agree with counsel that no nonfrivolous issues exist for appeal, we will grant the motion to withdraw and affirm the judgment of conviction of the District Court."