Jacob Kopnick

Maxim Marchenko, a Russian national living in Hong Kong, was sentenced on July 17 to three years in prison for his role in shipping dual-use, military grade organic light-emitting diode (OLED) micro-displays for Russian end users (see 2309190063), DOJ announced. He will serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.

The Court of International Trade in a confidential decision July 17 sustained in part and remanded in part the Commerce Department's final determination in the antidumping duty investigation on preserved mushrooms from the Netherlands. Judge M. Miller Baker said he will make the decision public on July 25. U.S. mushroom producer Giorgio Foods contested Commerce's pick of Germany as the third-country comparison market and its decision not to use adverse facts available against respondent Prochamp (see 2307240018) (Giorgio Foods v. U.S., CIT # 23-00133).

Mandatory antidumping duty respondent Linyi Chengen Import and Export Co., along with 25 plywood exporters, urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to uphold the Court of International Trade's decision giving Chengen and the separate rate respondents a zero percent dumping margin in the AD investigation on hardwood plywood from China (Linyi Chengen Import and Export Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1258).

World Trade Organization members at the July 10 meeting of the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights discussed "arrangements for reviewing implementation of the TRIPS Agreement," the WTO announced.

The Court of International Trade properly rejected the Commerce Department's decision to set the separate rate respondents' antidumping duty margin by averaging a zero percent rate and an adverse facts available rate, exporter Zhejiang Dehua TB Import & Export Co. told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Filing a reply brief July 17, the exporter said Commerce failed to support its use of the averaged rates and that the agency ultimately arrived at the correct determination: a zero percent margin for the separate rate companies (Linyi Chengen Import and Export Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1258).

Ildico, importer of luxury Richard Mille watches, told the Court of International Trade that the U.S. is seeking to "distract from the legal issue" in the case by claiming that Ildico allegedly can't prove the characteristics of the watches (Ildico v. United States, CIT # 18-00136).

The Commerce Department improperly decided that it can use Romania as the primary surrogate in the 2021-22 antidumping duty review on chlorinated isocyanurates from China after Romania wasn't submitted as a potential surrogate prior to the surrogate country comment deadline, exporters Heze Huayi Chemical Co. and Juancheng Kangtai Chemical Co. argued (Bio-Lab v. United States, CIT Consol. # 24-00024).

A dual U.S.-Ghana citizen made his initial appearance in a New York court July 16, a day after being extradited from the U.K. for his role in a scheme to bribe Ghanaian officials, DOJ announced. Asante Kwaku Berko is charged with one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of violating the FCPA and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.

Square Patton opened an office in Geneva, Switzerland, focusing on practice areas including international trade, sanctions, international dispute resolution and government investigations. The office is the firm's 17th European shop and will be led by Kate Sherrard, a financial services partner and co-head of the commodities and shipping practice group, the firm said July 17.

Dutch construction equipment maker Dieseko Group paid over $1.94 million to settle allegations that it violated sanctions on Russia, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service announced, according to an unofficial translation. Dieseko was found by Dutch authorities to have "sold pile drivers and associated parts" for the construction of a bridge in Crimea from 2015-16 and also provided technical assistance for the goods.