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:
A whistleblower in a False Claims Act challenge, Brutus Trading, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its case so the court can clear up its own 2023 decision that found the government can voluntarily dismiss a qui tam FCA case brought by a whistleblower after not initially intervening in the case, and that the dismissal would be carried out under Rule 41(a) (Brutus Trading v. Standard Chartered, Sup. Ct. # 23-813).
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The Court of International Trade on Jan. 29 granted in part and denied in part the U.S. bid to sanction a wristwatch exporter for late supplemental discovery materials. Judge Jane Restani said the exporter hadn't made a “sufficiently diligent” search for some of the materials, though she also said she was “mystified” by both parties’ actions involving others.