Canadian exporter Midwest-CBK asked the Court of International Trade to enter judgment against it in a case involving whether sales from a Canadian warehouse to U.S. customers are "sales for export to the U.S." or "domestic sales." Midwest said that over the course of the now six-year-old case, it ceased actively doing business and restructured itself, which has made complying with court orders to produce evidence impossible (Midwest-CBK, LLC v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 17-00154).
Chinese printer cartridge maker Ninestar Corp., along with eight of its Zhuhai-based subsidiaries, opposed the U.S.'s motion to extend the time to file a response to their request for a preliminary injunction in a case against their addition to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List. Ninestar said the government, in asking for a total of 62 more days, failed to show "good cause" for needing a delay to address "even one element of the preliminary injunction test" (Ninestar Corporation v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl Bentzel expects the government to eventually scrutinize certain rail storage fees imposed by ocean carriers on through bills of lading, he said during an industry conference this week. He also said the FMC is “very close” to finalizing its rule on detention and demurrage billing requirements and wants to better address issues involving service contract disputes between carriers and shippers.
The Court of International Trade on Sept. 11 ordered parties to answer whether there are any outstanding questions of fact in a customs spat on GoPro Hero camera housings. Judge Timothy Reif wants the issue resolved to see if the case is "ripe for summary judgment."
Suspicious activity reports recently filed with the U.S. government show nearly $1 billion worth of transactions over the last year may have had ties to Russia-related export control evasion, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in a new report analyzing SAR trend data. The report -- issued as part of a joint effort between FinCen and the Bureau of Industry and Security to collect more leads for export enforcement agents -- highlights several evasion trends being reported by banks and other financial institutions, including what types of goods are most commonly being sought by sanctions evaders and which foreign countries those transactions most frequently involve.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The federal government opposed referral of a customs case to mediation since the proper classification of the product in question -- The Comfy blanket sweatshirt -- "is not of the type that is likely to be resolved through mediation." Filing its opposition to importer Cozy Comfort's motion for a postassignment conference to explore mediation at the Court of International Trade, the U.S. said mediation would not be beneficial, adding that the proceeding is "not a complex case" (Cozy Comfort Company v. United States, CIT # 22-00173).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Cricket Wireless violated Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA) before and after its 2014 acquisition by AT&T by not disclosing the CDMA wireless network’s imminent shutdown, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled Tuesday (case 416, September 2022 term). The court disagreed with a lower court reversing the Maryland attorney general's consumer protection division (CPD) finding of a pre-merger violation, while rejecting AT&T’s appeal of a post-merger violation.
“Any reasonable person” would conclude that five Intelsat defendants, including former Chairman David McGlade and Intelsat’s two largest shareholders, engaged in unlawful insider trading while in possession of materially nonpublic information, alleged lead plaintiff Walleye Group in its opening brief Friday (docket 23-15822) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Walleye is seeking reversal of the district court’s April 26 dismissal of its second amended complaint. Walleye alleges the defendants sold more than $245 million of Intelsat stock the evening after they learned the FCC was going to reject Intelsat's “bet-the-company plan” for a private auction of satellite spectrum, which Intelsat previously believed the FCC would support (see 2305310058). Intelsat’s shares “collapsed” by 77% when the public found out about the FCC’s rejection, said Walleye’s opening brief. The defendants thereby avoided over $185 million in losses by selling their Intelsat stock in a late-evening fire sale, it said. As a result of the doomed deal, Intelsat filed for bankruptcy, it said. The case “involves one issue, and one issue alone” -- whether Walleye adequately alleged the scienter element of its insider trading claims, the brief said. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California “not only incorrectly weighed the collective inferences of scienter present here, but also improperly weighed such inferences through a clouded lens,” it said.