Nardello & Co., a global investigations firm, opened an office in Los Angeles that will be led by Managing Director Amie Chang, the firm announced. Chang returns to the U.S. from the firm's Hong Kong office, where she worked on various due diligence investigations, providing litigation support and aiding sensitive political risk engagements in China, the firm said. Prior to joining the firm, Chang worked as a DOD intelligence analyst and as a State Department diplomat. The firm's focus includes white collar criminal and civil litigation, due diligence, anti-corruption and fraud investigations, and asset tracing.
The State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser on Aug. 30 released its "Digest of United States Practice in International Law" for 2021. Chapter 3 covers the termination of International Criminal Court-related sanctions, and Chapter 16 focuses on sanctions developments from 2021, export controls and recent litigation and other restrictions. The document gives a record of the view and practice of the U.S. government.
A Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case showed the limits that a request under a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) can have for tolling a statute of limitations, two Holland & Knight attorneys said in an Aug. 29 blog post. The attorneys, Wifredo Ferrer and Gary Klubok, wrote that a recent district court decision tossing four counts of FCPA and other violation allegations on the grounds that the government cannot use multiple MLATs as a tool to extend tolling offers lessons for defense attorneys: criteria for when MLAT tolling orders end, and that MLAT tolling is offense-specific and not person-specific.
The Government Accountability Office, in a July 25 decision, dismissed a protest from shipping container manufacturer Sea Box contesting the terms of a Defense Logistics Agency request for quotations (RFQ) for freight containers. Sea Box said the solicitation should have more information on the Buy American Act's requirement for domestic end products, but GAO ruled the protest doesn't cite any procurement law or regulation requiring the DLA to include such information in the solicitation.
Law firm Baron & Budd will invest "significant resources" from its whistleblower practice to look into allegations of customs fraud, the firm announced. Citing the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and continued by President Joe Biden, Baron & Budd said that it is impossible for CBP to catch every instance of customs fraud, opening the door for whistleblowers to help out with customs enforcement. The firm encouraged whistleblowers with information about a company evading tariffs or duties to bring a False Claims Act lawsuit, which allows the whistleblowers to get a cut of the money recovered by the government in a successful FCA case.
David Johanson, the International Trade Commission's chair from June 2018 to June 2020, resumed that position June 17, the ITC announced. He succeeds Jason Kearns, whose term expired June 16. Johanson, the senior Republican on the commission, became chair "by operation of law in the absence of a Presidential designation," the ITC said. He has been on the commission since 2011 after being nominated by President Barack Obama.
Requests for action from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative should go beyond asking USTR to go and fix a problem via the World Trade Organization, USMCA or other dispute settlement system, said Daniel Stirk, senior associate general counsel at the agency. Speaking on a panel at the Georgetown International Trade Update, Stirk said that instead, trust that the office is already aware of the issue and is taking steps to solve it, and if you still decide to approach USTR, come with thoughtful solutions.
CBP will combine its trade symposium and Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism events for a July 18-20 conference in Anaheim, California, the agency said on its website. Registration for the Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit will open June 1, it said.
Legal services have so far been excluded from the U.S.'s waves of sanctions on Russia following its full-scale military assault on Ukraine. During a May 8 press call, a senior administration official discussed why that is and what the landscape for legal services restrictions may look like moving forward. Until now, the Biden administration has held off on legal services sanctions to allow designated parties to seek due process through U.S. attorneys.
Agricultural trading giant Cargill has stopped purchasing palm oil products from Malaysian firm Sime Darby Plantation following the U.S. withhold release order on Sime Darby's palm oil goods (see 2012300007), Bloomberg reported April 18. The WRO was placed on Sime Darby relating to evidence of forced labor in the company's operations. Cargill told Bloomberg purchases of Sime Darby palm oil ceased Feb. 25.