The U.K. High Court of Justice on Jan. 29 ruled that disclosures of reinsurance documents from a reinsurance broker to an airplane leasing company wouldn't violate the U.K.'s Russia sanctions regime. The disclosures were related to an insurance claim on planes leased by Russian airline operators.
The U.S. unsealed an indictment this month charging seven people with helping Iran violate U.S. sanctions through a billion-dollar smuggling network that sold oil to buyers in China, Russia and Syria. DOJ also seized $108 million that the network tried to launder through correspondent accounts at U.S. banks.
The leader of a Haitian criminal gang pleaded guilty last week to his role in smuggling firearms from the U.S. to Haiti in violation of export controls, DOJ said. Joly Germine was involved in purchases of at least 24 guns -- including K-47s, AR-15s, an M4 Carbine rifle, an M1A rifle, and a .50 caliber rifle -- for the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo.
The U.S. waived its right to file a response to a U.S. Supreme Court petition in a False Claims Act case brought by whistleblower Brutus Trading. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said in the government's waiver, filed Feb. 2, that it won't respond to the petition "unless requested to do so by the Court" (Brutus Trading v. Standard Chartered, Sup. Ct. # 23-813).
A Canadian steel products exporter asked the Court of International Trade to reverse a Jan. 31 dismissal of six of its cases for failure to prosecute, saying its lawyers had accidentally overlooked the deadline while negotiating with the government out of court (Arcelormittal Long Products Canada G.P. v. U.S., CIT # 21-00037, -00038, -00039, -00040, -00041, -00042).
Indonesian mattress exporter PT Ecos Jaya Indonesia and its affiliate PT Grantec Jaya Indonesia launched a challenge at the Court of International Trade against the Commerce Department's calculation of the exporter's constructed value and constructed export profit and selling expense ratios. The company objected to Commerce's use of financial data from Malaysian mattress maker Masterfoam Industries and Indian mattress conglomerate Kurlon Enterprise as surrogate sources (PT Ecos Jaya Indonesia v. United States, CIT # 24-00001).
En-Wei Eric Chang, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Taiwan, pleaded guilty Jan. 31 to conspiracy to export defense materials to Iran.
The U.S. charged four Chinese nationals this week for their parts in a yearslong conspiracy to violate export controls by smuggling electronic parts through China and to Iran.
The U.S. and antidumping petitioner Wind Tower Trade Coalition failed to show that the Commerce Department followed its standard "cost-smoothing" practice when it rejected respondent Marmen Energy's "product-specific plate costs as unreasonable," Marmen said in a Jan. 30 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Marmen v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1877).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York: