A New Jersey woman was sentenced to three years of probation, six months of home confinement and a $44,215.50 fine on charges of trafficking in counterfeit M·A·C cosmetics and accessory items, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE said Lynn Lavigne, 61, of Vineland, NJ, received the cosmetics from a supplier in China, and continued buying and selling the cosmetics after repeated notices by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol that the merchandise was counterfeit and subject to forfeiture.
The Court of International Trade denied Thai plaintiff KYD Inc.’s motion for reconsideration of CIT’s January 2012 affirmance of the International Trade Administration’s second remand redetermination of the 2006-07 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on polyethylene retail carrier bags from Thailand (A-579-821). KYD said CIT did not address its argument in the January 2012 proceedings that the 94.62% Adverse Facts Available (AFA) rate assigned to KYD by the second remand redetermination and affirmed by CIT violated the excessive fines and forfeitures clause of the 8th Amendment.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that Kevin Demetri Britton, 19, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen motor vehicles, following an investigation led by ICE. According to his plea agreement, between 2010 and April 2011, Britton was an active participant in a conspiracy to ship stolen cars from the United States to countries in West Africa for resale. Members of the conspiracy in the United States hired others to steal late model vehicles -- with the keys -- so that the vehicles could be more easily sold.
The Court of International Trade granted domestic plaintiff Home Products International, Inc.’s (HPI) motion for reconsideration of its January 2012 ruling that sustained part of the final results of the International Trade Administration’s 2007-08 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on floor-standing, metal-top ironing tables and certain parts thereof (A-570-888). CIT conceded that it “did not fully grasp HPI’s argument” against the ITA’s decision to value respondent Since Hardware (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.’s carton input using market economy prices. After fully understanding HPI’s argument, CIT remanded the determination to the ITA for further explanation.
The former acting director of intelligence for Immigration and Customs Enforcement pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of more than $180,000 in a scheme involving fraudulent travel vouchers, and time and attendance claims, ICE reports. James M. Woosley, 48, formerly of Tucson, Ariz., pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a charge of conversion of government money. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson scheduled sentencing for July 13, 2012. Under federal guidelines, Woosley faces a likely sentence of 18 to 27 months in prison as well as a potential fine. In addition, as part of his plea agreement, he agreed to forfeiture of the money he wrongfully obtained.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the Court of International Trade’s affirmance of the International Trade Administration’s remand redetermination, which the ITA completed under protest, of its final results of its 2007 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India (C-533-821). CAFC said the CIT improperly exceeded its authority by requiring the ITA to reopen and supplement the record to admit untimely filed documentation when the Indian respondent and plaintiff, Essar Steel Limited, did not cooperate to the best of its ability.
An executive of Korea's Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. (HLDS) agreed to plead guilty and serve time in a U.S. prison for participating in a series of conspiracies to rig bids for the sale of optical disk drives, the Department of Justice said April 30.
A general challenge of the International Trade Administration’s alleged failure to require explanations from petitioners for review requests and withdrawals of review requests in antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings was dismissed by the Court of International Trade because of lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The Court of International Trade found that there is no regulation, statute, or practice establishing a time limit for interested party submissions that rebut information that the International Trade Administration places on the record, and consequently remanded the ITA's decision to reject as untimely plaintiffs’ rebuttal of data that the ITA had placed on the record in a new shipper review of honey from China (A-570-863).
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced that Ping Cheng and Prime Technology Corporation, both of New York State, have agreed to $125,000 fines and two-year denial of export privileges for each to settle allegations that they conspired to violate the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The two-year denial period, as well as $75,000 in fines for each, will be suspended as long as neither commits additional export control violations during the two year period. According to BIS, the violations involve attempts to export carbon fiber to China for use by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) without the required U.S. government authorizations.