Peter Sotis of Delray Beach, Florida, and Emilie Voissem of Sunrise, Florida, were convicted of participating in an illegal export scheme to ship rebreather diving equipment to Libya, the Department of Justice said. Rebreathers, which have dual civilian and military applications, are included on the Commerce Control List and require an export license from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security. Sotis and Voissem did not acquire this license when they attempted to ship the rebreathers to Libya in 2016, despite being told by a Commerce special agent that a license was required.

The Justice Department has accused Ericsson of violating its deferred prosecution agreement relating to a 2019 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case, the Swedish telecommunications company said in an Oct. 21 news release. By "failing to provide certain documents and factual information," Ericsson violated the agreement, but it will have a chance to respond in writing to the nature of the breach, explaining any actions the company can take to remedy the situation, DOJ told Ericsson.

Queen Apparel NY, and its sole owner, Hank Hyunho Choi, agreed to pay $50,000 and cease all future importing activities due to fraudulent underreporting of imports to evade customs duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. Queen and Choi admitted to falsifying customs documents to skirt the import duties, leading to the settlement. The company made and imported garments for other companies that would then sell those garments through department stores and retail chains in the U.S., the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Choi managed the business. From 2009 to 2013, Choi and his company made the garments overseas, brought them to the U.S. and then repeatedly undervalued the shipments on customs forms to evade paying the proper amount of duties. This conduct was discovered via a whistleblower who filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Act, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The case was settled, with the eventual agreement containing admissions from Queen and Choi about the nature of their business and conduct during the relevant time period.

Aydan Sin of British Columbia was convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act for exporting defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List to the United Arab Emirates and Colombia, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York said. Sin, who allegedly conspired with Guy Deland and Charan Singh, will serve 46 months in prison. Singh began communicating with an undercover law enforcement agent in 2016 to ask about whether the undercover agent could export firearms from the U.S. to Dubai. The agent advised Sin, Deland and Singh that a license was required from the State Department, establishing that the trio knew about the regulations, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Acknowledging the illegality of the shipments, Sin, Deland and Singh then gave the agent an encrypted BlackBerry device to establish secure communications and wired the agent around $70,000 from Canada to the U.S. as a down payment for the guns. The agent sent Sin and Deland two invoices -- one for a shipment to Dubai and one for a shipment to Colombia. Money for the shipments was wired to a bank account in New York. Charges remain pending against Deland and Singh, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Oleg Nikitin, Russian national and owner of St. Petersburg-based energy company KS Engineering, was sentenced to federal prison for scheming to evade U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said. Nikitin was sentenced to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations. Nikitin was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and is subject to deportation when his sentence ends. KSE, along with Italian company GVA International Oil and Gas Services, will serve five years' probation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Virgil Griffith, a U.S. citizen residing in Singapore and cryptocurrency expert, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by giving North Korea technical advice on how to use cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to skirt U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. Griffith began formulating his plans in 2018, traveling to Pyongyang in 2019 to attend the Pyongyang Blockain and Cryptocurrency Conference. The State Department denied Griffith the right to travel to North Korea, but he went anyway, giving presentations to the North Korean audience, knowing full well that this violated sanctions, the Department of Justice said.

A rare cuneiform tablet with a portion of the ancient literary work Epic of Gilgamesh was returned to Iraq after a federal district court ordered that retail giant Hobby Lobby forfeit the tablet, the Justice Department said. A repatriation ceremony was held Sept. 23 at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The tablet originated in Iraq but then was illegally entered into the U.S. by an auction house that then sold it to Hobby Lobby. The retail chain purchased the tablet to display it at the Museum of the Bible, also in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement seized the tablet, which was ordered July 27 to be returned to Iraq (see 2107280028).

George Iloulian, CEO of apparel company Delta Uniforms of New York, skimped on import duties by understating the true value of his company's imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. Arrested on Sept. 23, Iloulian was then presented in Manhattan federal court where the civil fraud lawsuit was unsealed. Iloulian is accused of violating the False Claims Act by lying on entry documents submitted to CBP.

Jahziah Roy Lewis, a United Kingdom citizen, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for exporting firearms outside the U.S. and for conspiring to straw purchase firearms, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Sept. 20. Lewis and two accomplices were charged as part of an international weapons trafficking conspiracy to buy and ship around 36 firearms from the U.S. to the U.K. and the Caribbean through the U.S. Postal Service, the Department of Justice said. All three co-conspirators claimed to be the actual buyers of the firearms when in fact the actual recipient was someone else. The guns were shipped abroad concealed in household items and using false names on shipping labels, the U.S. attorney said. Many of the guns, bought in Georgia, were recovered in the U.K. and in St. Kitts, having been tied to various criminal networks abroad.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico ordered Puerto Rican companies Pharmacare and China District PR and their owner, Juan Reynoso, to stop importing dangerous children's toys, the Department of Justice said. The toys, along with other consumer products, violated the Consumer Product Safety Act and the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, among other laws, warranting an order from the court permanently enjoining the products' entry, DOJ said. The products allegedly had dangerous levels of lead and phthalates, according to the U.S.'s complaint against Reynoso and his companies. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has collected a total of 116 samples of these products since 2017, with 32 coming from Pharmacare and 84 from China District. These goods also included bicycle helmets, rattles and pacifiers that did not meet safety or labeling requirements, the DOJ complaint said.