Pfizer subsidiary Pfizer H.C.P. Corp. agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to resolve an investigation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth LLC also reached settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission under which Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay more than $26.3 million, including interest, to resolve concerns involving the conduct of its subsidiaries. Wyeth, which had been acquired by Pfizer Inc. in 2009, agreed to pay $18.8 million, including interest, to resolve concerns involving the conduct of Wyeth subsidiaries.
Antiques dealer David Hausman, 67, of New York City, pleaded guilty July 31 to obstruction of justice and creating false records in relation to illegal rhinoceros horn trafficking. The guilty plea was a result of an investigation which included U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigation. Hausman was arrested in February 2012 as part of "Operation Crash," and charged with Lacey Act violations.
The Court of International Trade remanded for the second time the final results of the 2006-07 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings and parts thereof from China (A-570-601). This time, CIT said there was nothing on the record that indicated Chinese plaintiff Peer Bearing Company-Changshan (which received a 92.84% AD rate in the original final results) was uncooperative, and therefore the ITA’s decision to apply an adverse facts available (AFA) AD rate of 60.95% on remand was unsupported. CIT also said the ITA’s decision not recalculate the surrogate values of three of plaintiff’s inputs was in violation of the first remand order, and reprimanded the ITA for failure to obey the court order.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded the International Trade Commission’s determination of no violation of section 337 in a patent dispute between Nokia and InterDigital. The ITC determination in question was in the investigation of certain 3G mobile handsets and components thereof (337-TA-613), instituted in 2007. CAFC said the ITC misinterpreted two key claim terms when finding that Nokia’s products do not infringe InterDigital’s patents. The inventions in question operate within a system that uses Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”) to allow multiple cellphones (referred to as “subscriber units”) within a certain geographical area to use the same portion of the radio frequency spectrum simultaneously. Judge Newman wrote a dissenting opinion.
The Court of International Trade accepted the International Trade Administration’s rationale for zeroing in administrative reviews but not in investigations, but again remanded the ITA’s refusal to individually review a voluntary respondent in the 2008-09 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam (A-552-802). CIT said the standard employed by the ITA in refusing to individually investigate company Grobest & I-Mei Industrial (Vietnam) Co., Ltd., which may have been eligible for partial revocation if it had been found to have its third consecutive zero AD rate, would render part of the statute useless because it would set so low a bar as to allow the ITA to refuse to individually review voluntary respondents even when such a review would not impose an undue burden.
The Court of International Trade finally affirmed the final results of 2004-05 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain pasta from Italy (A-475-818) on the International Trade Administration’s third try. After previous rulings had affirmed the ITA’s decision to use constructed value to calculate Atar S.r.l.’s AD rate instead of normal value because Atar had no viable home market or third-country comparison, CIT affirmed the ITA’s calculation of Atar’s profit rate and indirect selling expense rate, both of which are components of constructed value. Accordingly, Atar’s AD rate fell from the 18.18% final results rate to the 11.76% AD rate in this third remand redetermination.
Manhattan antiques dealer David Hausman pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to obstruction of justice and creating false records in relation to illegal rhinoceros horn trafficking, said Ignacia Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources. Hausman admitted he committed the offenses while telling the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service he was an antiques expert that wanted to help FWS investigate rhinoceros horn trafficking. Hausman was arrested in February 2012 as part of "Operation Crash," a nationwide, multi-agency crackdown on those involved in the black market trade of endangered rhinoceros horn.
The Court of International Trade again remanded the all-others rate from the original countervailing duty investigation of aluminum extrusions from China (C-570-968). CIT continued to find that the ITA was within its rights to use only the mandatory respondents’ CV rates to calculate the all others rate. CIT also found its within the rights of the ITA to use only mandatory respondents’ AD rates determined using adverse facts available.1 But CIT said the ITA’s remand redetermination still did not explain how the 375.15% AFA CV for mandatory respondents rate was reasonable use as an all others rate, and remedial not punitive.
The Court of International Trade dismissed claims that the International Trade Administration improperly ordered the retroactive suspension of liquidation of some of Chinese woven sack exporter Zibo Aifudi Plastic Packaging Co., Ltd.’s subject merchandise as moot, and sustained the International Trade Administration’s decision to apply the China-wide rate to AMS as a result of Adverse Facts Available (AFA) in the 2008-09 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on laminated woven sacks from China (A-570-916).
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents seized several sandstone and bronze statues that were smuggled from India at storage units located in a facility in Manhattan. The storage units allegedly belong to Subhash Kapoor, the owner of Art of the Past Gallery. Along with the search warrant, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office issued an arrest warrant for Kapoor for allegedly possessing stolen property, ICE said.