Dali Bagrou and his company World Mining and Oil Supply pleaded guilty on Aug. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to violating the Export Control Reform Act, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said in a press release. The scheme started when a Russian state-owned enterprise began working with Oleg Vladislavovich Nikitin, general director of Russia-based energy company KS Engineering, to buy a power turbine from a U.S.-based manufacturer for around $17.3 million, the release said.
The U.S. requested the chance to take another look at an Enforce and Protect Act investigation to consider documents that were not sent from one CBP office to another, in a July 30 motion for remand in the Court of International Trade. The agency also sought the remand in light of the court's decision in Royal Brush v. United States, in which CIT held that CBP failed to provide adequate public summaries of business confidential information (BCI) (see 2012020050). The plaintiff in the case, Leco Supply, opposed the remand request, arguing that it is "too broad to be justifiable" under the court's standards for allowing remands (Leco Supply, Inc. v. United States, CIT #21-00136).
Quick frozen garlic imported by Trinity that undergoes a blanching process is not considered heat treated and is still subject to antidumping duties on fresh garlic from China (A-570-831), Commerce said in a July 21 scope ruling. But Trinity’s quick frozen diced garlic and garlic puree are not subject to the AD duty order, said the agency in another scope ruling issued the next day.
Rolls of label tape imported by D&F Consolidated are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on narrow woven ribbons with woven selvedge from China (A-570-952/C-570-953), said the Commerce Department in a July 27 scope ruling. D&F claimed that only decorative ribbon is subject to the orders, but Commerce found that ribbon with a utilitarian purpose can be subject to AD/CV duties.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ordered Hobby Lobby to forfeit a cuneiform tablet engraved with a portion of the epic of Gilgamesh, the Justice Department announced July 27. Hobby Lobby bought the tablet, dubbed the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet and originating in what is now Iraq, from an international auction house for display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement seized the tablet in September 2019, as it was alleged to have been illegally brought into the U.S. An antiques dealer and a U.S. cuneiform export shipped it by international post without declaring the contents, the release said. “Forfeiture of the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet demonstrates the Department’s continued commitment to eliminating smuggled cultural property from the U.S. art market,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Thwarting trade in smuggled goods by seizing and forfeiting an ancient artifact shows the department’s dedication to using all available tools, including forfeiture, to ensure justice.”
World Trade Organization members reached a consensus July 28 on the 14 new heads of the subsidiary bodies that report to the Council for Trade in Goods. The General Council chair, Ambassador Dacio Castillo of Honduras, added that he will host consultations on how to "improve the overall process for the appointment of officers of all WTO bodies," according to an accompanying press release. The chairpersons are as follows: