Stephanie Connor left her position as assistant director of the Office of Foreign Asset Control's Policy Division to join Holland & Knight's international trade group. Connor, who first joined OFAC in 2022 as an assistant chief counsel, will advise on OFAC sanctions issues, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. regulations, and more.
The U.S. charged Armenian national Kamo Kirakosyan this week with violating export controls after DOJ said he participated in a conspiracy to illegally export semiconductor manufacturing items from the U.S. to Russia through Armenia.
The Commerce Department appropriately resorted to total adverse facts available against countervailing duty respondent Pastificio Gentile in the 2021 CVD review of Italian pasta, for failing to report all its affiliated companies, the Court of International Trade held in a decision made public Sept. 3. However, Judge Mark Barnett remanded the review for Commerce to explain the legal basis under which the agency decided to countervail programs it verified were unused during the period of review as part of the AFA treatment.
Jennifer Kennedy Gellie, former chief of DOJ's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section in the National Security Division, has joined Pillsbury's international trade group. Gellie left DOJ in January after nearly a decade with the agency, where she worked on cases involving export controls, sanctions, corporate crime and other similar issues. Pillsbury said she will help clients "navigate enforcement and compliance for sanctions, export-control, Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and trade matters."
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated between Aug. 25 and Aug. 27 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
An Estonian national was extradited to the U.S. on Aug. 28 to face charges of conspiracy to violate U.S. export controls by sourcing U.S.-made electronics for use by the Russian government and military, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced. Andrey Shevlyakov faces 18 total counts related to the international procurement scheme.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Trade Law Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Commerce Department permissibly decided not to countervail India's Advanced Authorization Scheme, which is akin to an advance drawback system, in the 2021 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on new pneumatic off-the-road tires, the Court of International Trade held in a decision made public Aug. 29.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Aug. 29 said President Donald Trump exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by imposing the reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico to combat the flow of fentanyl. Declining to address whether IEEPA categorically provides for tariffs, though spilling much ink on the topic, a majority of the court held that IEEPA doesn't confer unbounded tariff authority (V.O.S. Selections v. Donald J. Trump, Fed. Cir. #s 25-1812, -1813).