The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in an Aug. 21 summary order affirmed a New York district court's dismissal of Brutus Trading's qui tam False Claims Act against Standard Chartered, which accused the financial firm of facilitating illegal banking transactions on behalf of sanctioned parties. After Brutus filed the qui tam case, in which a party with evidence of fraud against the U.S. government can file a lawsuit on behalf of the government, the U.S. then moved to toss the matter after finding that the "factual allegations were unsupported," the legal theory "was not cognizable, and the continuation of the suit would waste considerable government resources" (Brutus Trading v. Standard Chartered Bank, 2nd Cir. # 20-2578).

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 14-20:

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The Court of International Trade in a confidential Aug. 21 opinion again sent back the Commerce Department's decision not to investigate the alleged off-peak sale of electricity below cost as part of the 2018 review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea. Judge Mark Barnett also remanded for a second time the agency's decision not to treat POSCO Plantec, an affiliate of respondent POSCO, as a cross-owned input supplier of POSCO regarding the supply of scrap (Nucor Corp. v. United States, CIT # 21-00182).

Verizon, CEO Hans Vestberg and former Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis failed to disclose the company was responsible for “an extensive network of lead cables that had been previously laid in many areas around the country, causing harm and posing the risk of further harm to the environment,” alleged a Verizon shareholder.

The Commerce Department failed to consider the "reliance interests" of antidumping petitioners led by Bonney Forge Co. when sticking by its decision to find that questionnaires issued in lieu of on-site verification satisfied the statute's requirement for verification, the Court of International Trade ruled on Aug. 21. Judge Stephen Vaden said that while past practice "is not an inescapable straitjacket," an agency must put a "reasoned explanation on the record" in compliance with the rules established by the Supreme Court in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California.

Belkin, trying to fend off allegations it falsely advertised the charging capacity of its power banks for mobile devices (see 2301300008), seeks the entry of a confidentiality order, now that the parties are deep into discovery, said its motion Thursday (docket 1:22-cv-06918) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. Plaintiff Dennis Gromov served Belkin with discovery requests that call for the production of documents “containing Belkin’s commercially sensitive, proprietary, and trade secret business information,” said the motion. Some of the documents requested also contain the personally identifiable information of Belkin’s customers, it said. The parties met and conferred about Belkin’s proposed draft confidentiality order, but Gromov’s counsel indicated Gromov won’t consent to the entry of a confidentiality order, it said. Belkin accordingly filed the motion “and submits that good cause exists” for the entry of its proposed order, it said.

Defendants WCO Spectrum, its founder Gary Winnick and CEO Carl Katerndahl seek an order staying discovery in the fraud case brought by T-Mobile pending resolution of their forthcoming motion to dismiss, said their memorandum Thursday (docket 2:23-cv-04347) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles. The case involves educational broadband service wireless spectrum in the 2.5-GHz band that the FCC historically has licensed to schools (see 2306030002).

Antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells and modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are now set to take effect in June 2024, after the Commerce Department continued to find in final determinations announced Aug. 18 that imports from the four Southeast Asian countries are circumventing AD/CVD on solar cells from China (A-570-979/C-570-980).