A federal grand jury indicted Rep. Jefferson (D-La.) on 16 counts including money laundering, obstruction of justice, bribery and racketeering for using his elected position to assemble telecom deals in Africa, the Justice Dept. said Mon. Jefferson led official delegations to Africa to tout telecom deals in Nigeria, Ghana and elsewhere, plus oil concessions in Equatorial Guinea and satellite transmission contracts in Botswana, Guinea and the Republic of Congo, the indictment said. “The schemes charged are complex, but the essence of this case is simple: Mr. Jefferson corruptly traded on his good office, and on the Congress where he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, to enrich himself and his family through a pervasive pattern of fraud, bribery and corruption,” said U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg, Eastern District of Va. Jefferson sought and/or received “hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes” on behalf of business interests and relatives, the filing alleged. In July 2005, he met with a Nigerian at the official’s home in Potomac, Md., offering a bribe to get commitments from the govt.-controlled telecom service provider in Nigeria. A month later, Jefferson “secreted in his freezer $90,000 of the $100,000 in cash” a cooperating witness had provided to pay the Nigerian, the Justice Dept. said: “The cash was separated into $10,000 increments, wrapped in aluminum foil, and concealed inside various frozen food containers.” Jefferson faces a maximum of 235 years in prison if convicted on all counts, Justice said.
In October 2000, the U.S. enacted Public Law 106-286 entitled Normal Trade Relations for the People's Republic of China which, among other things, codified into U.S. law the application of the World Trade Organization's product-specific safeguard for imports from China.
Ohio U. should do some research on RIAA tactics -- and court rebukes to the trade group -- before handing over data to identify students in file-sharing lawsuits, defense lawyer Joseph Hazelbaker told the university in a Wed. letter. The school, a major target of RIAA pre-suit settlement offers, drew House Judiciary and Education committees’ attention (WID May 3 p9). It said recently that campus P2P sharing had ended, thanks to its new policy of cutting Internet access to computers found using common P2P applications (WID May 17 8). RIAA recently filed 2 complaints against John Doe defendants traced to Ohio U. dorm networks, in one case serving an ex parte subpoena to the school, according to Hazelbaker, who said he represents defendants in at least one of those cases. RIAA may not have authority to issue one complaint against multiple John Does accused of “separate and distinct acts,” due to a 2004 U.S. Dist. Court, Austin, Tex., order against recording industry use of that practice, he said. RIAA’s subpoena may be premature, lacks backup evidence and hasn’t been brought to the attention of U.S. Dist. Court, Columbus, the local court, Hazelbaker said. The Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act exception for “lawfully issued” subpoenas “should not be assumed to apply in this instance.” Ohio U. should fight the subpoena before “compromising student private information,” he said, not “simply act as an open conduit for the special interest RIAA.” Hazelbaker warned the school will “ultimately be responsible should confidential information be prematurely and/or improperly disclosed.” RIAA couldn’t be reached to comment on the Austin decision’s germaneness to its litigation strategy.
The U.S. Supreme Court Mon. ruled in favor of Verizon in an antitrust suit with implications not only for the Bells but for all industries (CD Nov 28 p1). The class action filing by William Twombly and Lawrence Marcus charged the Bells with “acting in parallel” to curb competition by not competing in one another’s territories and resisting CLEC entry in their own markets. Justice John Stevens dissented; Justice Ruth Ginsburg joined in part of his dissenting opinion.
Alongside familiar pirate haunts Russia and China, Canada sticks out as a Western nation lacking basic copyright protections for the Internet economy, said Congress members and copyright industry chiefs. Besides those countries, the International Anti-Piracy Caucus’s 2007 watch list, released Thurs., includes Mexico and Malaysia. Russia is getting steadily worse on intellectual property rights (IPR), but in some ways China is cutting piracy, the Caucus said. It chided Canada as a country that hasn’t gotten the brink of effective IPR protection. The watch list closely tracks the U.S. Trade Representative’s larger Special 301 list (WID May 1 p3), echoing its focus on Russia and China.
The Journal of Commerce Online reports that Target Corporation and its affiliate, Associated Merchandising Corp., have filed suit in the Court of International Trade accusing the U.S. of gender discrimination in tariffs imposed on similar items of apparel, footwear, and gloves. The article notes that in some cases, duties are higher on items for women and girls, but in other cases, the duties are higher on items for men and boys. (JoC Online dated 05/14/07, www.joc.com.)
American Shipper reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Census Bureau have "gone back to the meeting table" in an effort to finalize the mandatory Automated Export System filing rules. Once changes are agreed to, CBP and Census will have to reissue a new proposed rule for mandatory AES with all new deadlines for comments and final implementation. (American Shipper, February 2007, www.americanshipper.com)
Inmarsat wants the FCC to condition a proposed merger of Telenor and Inceptum on allowing Inmarsat to change its distribution structure, according to FCC filings. “The power to change the existing distribution structure lies entirely with [Telenor and Inceptum] who continue to benefit from it,” said Inmarsat. Inmarsat was created to be a wholesaler of maritime satellite system services to countries with exclusive rights to “land” Inmarsat services, and then resell them. That meant Inmarsat end users had to buy Inmarsat offerings through a controlled distribution network. Inmarsat went private in 1999; its distribution network and associated requirements remained. “While about a dozen global distributors once offered the full suite of Inmarsat services, the number of such distributors today stands at a mere three,” Diane Cornell, Inmarsat vp-govt. affairs, told the FCC in a recent ex parte. Inmarsat wants “a normal competitive environment” with “no artificial limit” on distributors, said Cornell. Inmarsat, which has taken its case globally, told the FCC that the U.K. Office of Fair Trading formally has asked the E.C. to review the merger. Referral does not necessarily mean the EC will review the merger, Cornell told us. If the EC accepts the referral, the parties then defend the merger, after which the EC will have 35 days to decide whether to clear or it could move it to a longer phase II review, Cornell said.
The U.S. govt. has filed with the WTO to get out of its duty to give foreign Internet gambling operators access to American bettors, officials told reporters Fri. A WTO appeals body recently ruled against the U.S. on the point in a dispute with Antigua (WID April 2 p4). The panel agreed that the U.S. hadn’t meant to open itself to online gambling through the 1993 Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT) -- but ruled that’s what the agreement requires, said John Veroneau, deputy U.S. trade representative (USTR).
The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) has recently posted to its Web site a notice announcing that effective May 1, 2007, it will no longer accept "carbon paper" and "downloadable" versions of the following application forms, and that only the D-Trade (electronic) version of these forms may be used, and must be submitted through D-Trade: