The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sentenced three Miami-Dade residents for roles in a conspiracy to illegally export aviation parts to Syria, in violation of U.S. sanctions against the country, the Justice Department announced Dec. 20. The defendants had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by exporting dual-use goods without a license to Syrian Air, a Syrian state entity designated and blocked by Treasury for transporting weapons and ammunition to Syria “in conjunction with” Hezbollah and the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps. U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom sentenced both Ali Caby and Arash Caby to two years in prison followed by two years of supervised release, and sentenced Marjan Caby to one year and one day in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. Bloom also ordered Arash Caby to pay a $10,000 fine, DOJ said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 11-17:
Federal intellectual property enforcement prosecutors are working in five “critical” regions to counter illegal trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, the Justice Department announced Dec. 15. DOJ and the State Department jointly manage the intellectual property enforcement program, which was established in 2006, and now has on-the-ground prosecutors in Abuja, Nigeria; Bucharest, Romania; São Paulo, Brazil; Bangkok; and Hong Kong.
Aluminum products do not have to retain the general shape or form of an extrusion to be covered by the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967/C-570-968), the Commerce Department said in a recent decision. Sustaining a 2016 Commerce Department ruling that fittings for engine cooling systems imported by Adams Thermal Systems are covered by AD/CV duties (see 1607260065), CIT held that, though the scope says it covers shapes and forms “produced by the extrusion process,” it also mentions several fabrication processes, such as bending and stretching, that change the shape of the extrusion but do not remove it from the scope. CIT also found that ATS’s transformation of raw extrusions into fittings does not result in a substantial transformation that removes them from the scope. The scope specifically includes goods “described at the time of importation as parts for final finished products,” as well as products “identified with reference to their end use,” CIT said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 4-10:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 27 - Dec. 3:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 20-26:
The Court of International Trade on Nov. 20 dismissed an importer’s bid to invalidate the preliminary determination in the ongoing antidumping duty investigation on aluminum foil from China, finding the importer needs to wait for the final determination to challenge the case. Valeo North America sought to bar the collection of AD duty cash deposits on its imported aluminum foil, arguing that Commerce’s late issuance of the preliminary determination means that it should have been “deemed negative” with all rates automatically set to zero. Valeo claimed CIT had “residual jurisdiction” over the case because all the normal avenues for a court hearing were inadequate. But CIT found Valeo could wait to argue its case in a normal challenge of a Commerce final determination. Paying cash deposits while waiting for a chance to challenge an AD duty case is a normal situation, and “neither the burden of participating in the administrative proceeding nor the business uncertainty caused by such a proceeding is sufficient to constitute manifest inadequacy,” CIT said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 13-19:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 6-12: