The Dutch Supreme Court on April 24 said it will refer two preliminary questions to the European Court of Justice concerning the effect of EU Russia sanctions on sanctioned parties' shareholder voting rights, according to an unofficial translation.
The former comptroller general of Ecuador, Carlos Ramon Polit Faggioni, was convicted on April 23 for his part in an international bribery and money laundering scheme, DOJ announced.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York charged four Iranian nationals -- Hossein Harooni, Reza Kazemifar, Komeil Baradaran Salmani and Alireza Shafie Nasab -- for allegedly conducting cyber intrusions on U.S. government and private entities, including the Treasury and State departments, defense contractors and two New York-based companies, DOJ announced.
The Court of International Trade on April 24 sustained CBP's finding on remand that importer Columbia Aluminum Products didn't evade the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. But Judge Timothy Stanceu rejected Columbia's claim that CBP needed to immediately terminate the interim measures issued under the Enforce and Protect Act after reversing its original evasion finding.
Gzuniga Ltd., a luxury handbag seller, its founder Nancy Teresa Gonzalez de Barberi and Gonzalez's associate, Mauricio Giraldo, were sentenced to prison for illegally importing to the U.S. goods made from protected wildlife from Colombia, DOJ announced April 22.
DOJ charged 10 individuals with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela by shipping aircraft parts to service the company's fleet in Venezuela.
The United States asked for 14 more days to file its reply brief in an appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the validity of the Commerce Department's non-market economy policy in antidumping duty cases. The government said it needs more time to prepare its draft brief and receive input from DOJ "supervisory counsel" and Commerce attorneys (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2245).
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 19 partially dismissed a lawsuit from sanctioned individuals Mir Rahman Rahmani and Hafi Ajmal Rahmani and over two dozen of their companies challenging their sanctions listing for their alleged role in a corruption scheme that swiped millions of dollars from U.S. contracts in Afghanistan (Mir Rahman Rahmani v. Janet Yellen, D.D.C. # 24-00285).
The Court of International Trade on April 22 sent back the Commerce Department's decision not to attribute subsidies received by lumber suppliers to respondents in an expedited countervailing duty review on Canadian softwood lumber. Judge Mark Barnett said that if Commerce continues to find that the respondents are the producers of the subject lumber, the agency must reconsider its decision to require an upstream subsidy allegation for lumber purchases within the class of covered merchandise.
Turkey's Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy, chair of the World Trade Organization's agriculture negotiations, said "fresh thinking" is needed to end the stagnation in current agriculture talks, the WTO said. Addressing the participating members of the ag negotiating body during the first meeting since the 13th Ministerial Conference, Acarsoy urged members not to ditch "past efforts" despite the disappointment felt after a deal was not struck at MC13.