The U.S. announced charges against a group of business owners, their companies and associates for illegally exporting advanced Nvidia chips to China the same day President Donald Trump said he plans to ease export controls over those exact chips.
Electronics importer Harman International Industries agreed to pay more than $11.8 million to settle allegations it evaded antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced on Nov. 26.
Able Groupe, an infant formula retailer, pleaded guilty on Nov. 21 to smuggling European infant formula into the U.S. and importing it in violation of the FDA's prior notice requirements, DOJ announced.
The U.S. arrested two U.S. citizens and two Chinese nationals last week after accusing them of using a purported Florida real estate firm, an Alabama distributor and nearly $4 million in wire transfers to buy and illegally export “cutting edge” chips to China.
An Indonesian jewelry company and its co-owner, along with two other employees, were charged last week with taking part in a scheme to evade over $86 million in customs duties on jewelry imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced. Two of the individuals, Indonesian national Icha Anastasia and Italian national Claudio Fogale, were arrested last week and each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud (United States v. PT Untung Bersama Sejahtera a/k/a UBS Gold, D.N.J. # 2:25-12158).
Three Chinese researchers were charged on Nov. 5 with conspiracy to smuggle biological materials into the U.S. and for making false statements to CBP officers, DOJ announced. The individuals, Xu Bai, Fengfan Zhang and Zhiyong Zhang, were all research scholars with J-1 visas conducting research at the University of Michigan laboratory of researcher Xianzhong Xu, DOJ said.
A federal jury this week convicted New York resident Ji Wang on charges of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets after the U.S. said he stole information about optical fibers for high-powered lasers and planned to use that information to start a business in China.
The U.S. this week charged a Belorussian citizen with illegally exporting U.S. avionics and aircraft equipment to Russia, including for use by a company on the Entity List.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas set sentencing for Jan. 8 in a case against a customs broker for conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Magistrate Judge Kathleen Cardone referred the case for sentencing in an Oct. 24 order after accepting the guilty plea from the individual, Carlos Leopoldo Alvelais (USA v. Carlos Leopoldo Alvelais, W.D. Tex. # 3:25-02512).
An Australian national pleaded guilty Oct. 29 to two counts of theft of trade secrets, DOJ announced. Peter Williams admitted to selling his employer's trade secrets to a Russian "cyber-tools broker," the agency said.