Law firm Mayer Brown will enter into a joint law venture with Singapore firm PK Wong & Nair following approval from the Singapore Legal Services Regulatory Authority, Mayer Brown announced. The joint venture, dubbed the Mayer Brown PK Wong & Nair Pte. Ltd., will offer advising services on international and Singapore law with all Singapore court litigation provided via PK Wong & Nair, the firm said. Mayer Brown opened a Singapore office in 2011, growing the outlet to over 25 lawyers.

Up to 11 former employees of Swiss global commodity trading and mining company Glencore could be investigated in the U.K. under charges of bribery in five African countries, Alexandra Healy, an attorney for the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), said Oct. 24 in a London court, Bloomberg reported. The alleged scheme involved more than $28 million in bribes, though the SFO didn't say if all 11 were being investigated for bribery. Glencoe told Bloomberg the 11 are former employees. Healy said the SFO will make individual charging decisions likely by the end of April. In DOJ's parallel investigation, two former Glencore traders, Anthony Stimler and Emilio Heredia, pleaded guilty, Bloomberg said. The SFO announced in May that Glencore was expected to pay around $1.5 billion to settle investigations into bribery and price manipulation charges revolving around deals in the U.S., U.K. and Brazil.

The U.K. implemented a General License Oct. 17 permitting individuals and entities designated under the Belarus and Russia sanctions regimes and companies owned or controlled by these sanctioned parties to pay funds to the London Court of International Arbitration to cover arbitration costs. The license also permits the LCIA to use funds deposited by sanctioned parties, companies owned or controlled by sanctioned parties or their legal representatives before their listing. The license "is of indefinite duration."

Singapore State courts sentenced Muhammad Rifa'ie Bin Mazlan Oct. 11 to 26 months in prison for conspiring to sell cigarettes for which duties had not been paid, Singapore Customs announced. A Singaporean national, Rifa'ie will also serve one month and 18 days in prison for possessing and using property "reasonably suspected" to be obtained from criminal conduct. He pleaded guilty to one charge under the Customs Act and two counts of violating Section 47AA of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes Act.

The European Court of Justice on Sept. 8 ruled the EU properly reimposed antidumping duties on certain footwear with uppers of leather from China and Vietnam. Ruling against German footwear company Puma, the bloc's highest court said the European Commission in 2016 legally reimposed the duties of up to 16.5%.

Ukrainian state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz launched a request for arbitration with the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce over "the actions" of Russian oil company Gazprom, Naftogaz said in a statement. The Ukrainian company demands that Gazprom pay for natural gas transit services carried out in Ukraine. Gazprom has not paid any of these funds, "neither on time nor in full," the statement said. Added Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko: "We will make Gazprom pay. Naftogaz also assesses the possibility of additional claims. We will use our experience of victories over Gazprom in arbitration."

Vietnam's Dinh Ba Customs Branch will prosecute an individual charged with illegally transporting currency across the border from Cambodia to Vietnam, the state-run CustomsNews reported Sept. 15. The case was transferred to the Investigation Policy Agency of the Tan Hong district policy to continue the investigation per the country's regulations, the report said. The defendant, Trinh Linh Em, was stopped at the Dinh Ba international border gate, where border agents found piles of money that the man said amounted to nearly $14,000, from cockfights in Cambodia. The Dinh Ba Customs Branch said Linh Em brought the money into the country without declaring it.

Solaiyappan Ramanathan, a permanent resident of Singapore, was ordered to pay a $558,000 fine by the Singapore State Courts for making false statements when applying for Preferential Certificates of Origin for goods his company exported, Singapore Customs announced Aug. 31. Solaiyappan is the former director of Feccuni Singapore Pte. and sole owner of Shakambri Overseas -- companies set up to import and export scrap metals and other metal products from local and overseas suppliers.

Singapore Customs arrested a man and seized 261 cartons of cigarettes for which duties were not paid, the agency said in an Aug. 26 release. The customs agency spotted the man in a car that had brown boxes in the passenger compartment. Officers found 258 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes, placing the man under arrest. After a follow-up search of the man's residence, Singapore Customs found another three cartons of cigarettes and 10 empty computer casings that were used as cover loads for the cigarettes. The man allegedly evaded $22,280 in duties and $1,770 in goods and services tax, Singapore Customs said. "Court proceedings are ongoing," the release said.

Chu Thang Trung, deputy director of Vietnam's Trade Remedies Authority, said exporting firms should diversify export markets to avoid "putting all their eggs in one basket," and skirt the challenges posed by increasing trade remedy investigations against Vietnamese goods, the state-run CustomsNews reported Aug. 26.