Atsushi Kono, a former Akin Gump law clerk and lawyer with Japanese firm Nishimura & Asahi, was named a deputy director of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, he announced Aug. 21 on LinkedIn. He said he is joining the International Economic Affairs Department within the ministry’s Trade Policy Bureau, where he will help the Japanese government work on international trade-related legal and policy issues.
Venezuela citizen George Semerene Quintero pleaded guilty Aug. 20 to conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company where he worked, DOJ announced.
Russian-German national Arthur Petrov was extradited to the U.S., making his initial appearance in court Aug. 9 for allegedly committing export control violations, smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering, DOJ announced. Extradited from Cyprus, Petrov was charged for his part in a scheme to ship more than $225,000 worth of U.S.-sourced microelectronics to companies supplying weapons to the Russian military.
U.S. export controls are blocking Huawei's access to evidence that it needs to prepare for its upcoming trial on racketeering, trade secret theft and other charges (see 2002130045), the Chinese technology company said in a court filing last week.
A recent federal district court ruling limiting the U.S. anti-smuggling statute to physical goods won't affect export control enforcement efforts on data and other intangible exports sent digitally across borders, lawyers said in interviews. Although the U.S. District Court in Kentucky said a statute barring the unlicensed export of certain merchandise, articles or objects didn't apply to an email with magnet schematics sent to Chinese manufacturers (see 2407290046), lawyers noted that U.S. export control agencies have their own, specific enforcement authorities to regulate those digital transmissions.
An Iranian national was extradited to the U.S. from the U.K. on charges related to his alleged role in a scheme to evade U.S. export controls by shipping electronic testing technology to Iran, DOJ announced. Saeid Haji Agha Mousaei made his initial appearance in an Illinois U.S. District Court on July 22, where he faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., smuggling goods from the U.S., wire fraud and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
A Hallandale, Florida, resident was charged on July 2 with smuggling controlled goods into Russia from the U.S. Kirill Gordei, president of Florida-based freight forwarding company Apelsin Logistics, faces three counts -- conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., smuggling goods from the U.S. and exporting a spectrometer, a controlled item, unlawfully -- DOJ announced. A Belarus citizen and U.S. permanent resident, Gordei faces maximums of five, 10 and 20 years in prison for the charges, respectively.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. declined to prosecute a Massachusetts biochemical company that was part of an illegal export scheme involving China, the first time DOJ’s National Security Division has offered a corporate declination under its recently updated voluntary self-disclosure program.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York: