The Bureau of Industry and Security recently suspended the export privileges of 10 people for illegally exporting either weapons, ammunition or sensitive documents to Russia, China, Haiti or Mexico.

Sai Keung Tin, a Chinese national, was indicted March 8 on four counts of illegally exporting eastern box turtles, a "protected wildlife species," from the U.S. to China for the "global pet trade black market," DOJ announced. Tin faces a maximum 10-year prison stint for each smuggling count.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on March 12 affirmed a federal D.C. court's dismissal of Venezuelan national Samark Jose Lopez Bello's suit against his designation as a narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Samark Jose Lopez Bello v. Andrea M. Gacki, D.C. Cir. # 21-01727).

U.S. Army solider and intelligence analyst Korbein Schultz was arrested March 7 on charges of exporting defense-related technical data without a license and conspiracy to export defense articles, DOJ announced. A federal grand jury also indicted him on a charge of conspiracy to obtain national defense information and bribery of a public official.

A federal grand jury indicted Chinese national Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, for allegedly stealing trade secrets on artificial intelligence technology from Google, DOJ announced March 6. Ding, who was residing in California, purportedly transferred the trade secrets from "Google's network to his personal account while secretly affiliating himself with" Chinese companies in the AI industry.

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 State Department this week announced penalties on two people and three entities and their subsidiaries for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The agency in a notice said the parties transferred items subject to multilateral control lists that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production. The State Department barred them from making certain purchases of items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act and will suspend any current export licenses. The agency also will bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The restrictions will remain in place for two years from the Feb. 27 effective date.

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).

Gunvor S.A., a wing of global commodities trading giant Gunvor Group, pleaded guilty on March 1 to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as part of a scheme to bribe officials of Petroecuador, the Ecuadorian state-owned oil company, and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Hydrocarbons. Gunvor was ordered to pay a $661 million criminal penalty for bribing the officials to receive contracts to buy oil products, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced.