Two U.S. residents tried to illegally export millions of dollars worth of automatic guns, grenade launchers, stinger missile systems, grenades, sniper rifles, ammunition and other export-controlled items to South Sudan, DOJ said in an indictment unsealed March 5. The agency said they were trying to buy the weapons to “arm opposition groups” looking to overturn the country’s government.
Preparations continue for a jury trial set for April 1 in a criminal arms smuggling case involving the constitutionality of "specially designed" provisions in U.S. export controls (U.S. v. Quadrant Magnetics, LLC, W.D. Ky. # 3:22-CR-88-DJH).
The Court of International Trade last week ordered a hearing in a countervailing duty injury case on whether any party violated the court's rules regarding the bracketing of confidential information, suggesting that Rule 11 sanctions were on the table.
Russian citizen and Hong Kong resident Maxim Marchenko recently pleaded guilty to money laundering and smuggling after DOJ said he helped illegally ship U.S. dual-use microelectronics with military applications to Russia. Maxim was charged in September as part of a scheme that used shell companies to illegally source export-controlled items from the U.S. by giving false information to American distributors (see 2309190063).
The U.S. told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a Feb. 29 reply brief that exporter Guizhou Tyre offered a "confused rendition of" the Commerce Department's separate rate analysis, equating the presumption of foreign state control with the lower standard from the agency's "substantial evidence requirement." The government said that, contrary to Guizhou Tyre's claims, it's not Commerce's duty to affirmatively show an absence of Chinese state control (Guizhou Tyre Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2165).
An British court of appeals declined to hear one appeal, and found in favor of the government in another, in cases regarding U.K. sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York last week charged Russian oligarch Andrey Kostin, along with Russian national Vadim Wolfson of Austin, Texas, and U.S. citizen Gannon Bond of Edgewater, New Jersey, with conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions on Russia by providing "funds, goods, and services" to Kostin, a sanctioned party, it said in a news release. (U.S. v. Andrey Kostin, S.D.N.Y. # 24-00091).
Just as the Court of International Trade ruled, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit can hear a Chinese diamond sawblade exporter’s case on a new issue arising from a separate rate determination even though CAFC has already decided a previous case regarding that same determination, an importer said Feb. 28 (China Manufacturers Alliance, LLC v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-2391).
Neena Shenai, former senior legal director and chief counsel for global trade at medical technology giant Medtronic, has joined WilmerHale as a partner in the international trade, investment and market access practice group, the firm announced. Shenai's practice will center on economic sanctions, export controls and issues pertaining to global market navigation, the firm said. Before joining Medtronic, Shenai also worked as trade counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee during 2011-15.
The EU General Court last week rejected Belarusian nitrogen compound producer Grodno Azot's application for delisting from the EU's sanctions regime on Belarus.