Herdade Lokua and Jospin Mujangi, citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo, were sentenced, respectively, to 20 months and 14 months in prison for their roles in a scheme to smuggle wildlife products from the DRC to Seattle, DOJ announced. Both defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy and Lacey Act charges.
Teo Boon Ching, a Malaysian national, was charged with conspiring to traffic more than 70 kilograms of rhinoceros horns worth over $725,000 and launder the proceeds of the sale of the horns, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. Ching was arrested in Thailand in June and extradited to the U.S. on Oct. 7 to appear before Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He faces a maximum of five years in prison for the trafficking charge and 20 years in prison for the two counts of money laundering.
Jorge Murrillo, former Miami resident, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act by importing illegal hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22) from China, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Oct. 5. Murillo imported over 300,000 kilograms of HCFC-22, a popular refrigerant for residential heat pump and air conditioning systems, worth over $1.5 million. He also was ordered to pay $5,794.84 in restitution for costs associated with storing the merchandise.
Personal protective equipment manufacturer defendants, led by Smart Glove Holdings, failed to disclose they were under investigation by CBP for using forced labor, leading to over $68.5 million in damages to protective equipment supplier Airboss Defense Group (ADG), ADG said in a Sept. 19 complaint. Filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, ADG claimed that had it known about this investigation, it would not have agreed to source its gloves from Smart Glove and would have avoided the millions in charges, logistics costs and storage fees it incurred due to the imports being detained under a withhold release order (Airboss Defense Group v. Smart Glove Holdings, C.D. Calif. #2:22-06727).