Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, the leader of the Ecuadorian drug trafficking group Los Choneros, was extradited from Ecuador to New York this week to face smuggling and drug- and weapons-related charges. Macias Villamar was indicted in April for allegedly helping Los Choneros obtain firearms and weapons by illegally trafficking and exporting them from the U.S., including by hiring people to buy guns in the U.S. and smuggle them to Ecuador 2504020080). DOJ said Ecuadorian authorities “provided substantial assistance to secure the extradition” of Macias Villamar. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 20 years and up to life.
A Lebanese national was sentenced on July 21 to 44 months in prison for attempting to unlawfully export goods from the U.S. to Iran without a license, attempting to smuggle goods from the U.S., submitting false export information and conspiring to commit money laundering, DOJ announced. Brian Assi was convicted in October 2024 of trying to export "U.S.-made heavy machinery" to Iran (see 2410250042).
Information collected under the Export Control Reform Act is “presumptively withheld” from Freedom of Information Act requests, the U.S. said July 14 in a case involving the disclosure of documents related to an addition to the Entity List (Husch Blackwell v. Department of Commerce, D.D.C. # 1:24-02733).
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 11 upheld Chinese lidar company Hesai Technology's designation as a "Chinese military company." Judge Paul Friedman waded through issues of statutory interpretation regarding the Pentagon's definition of the phrase "military-civil fusion contributor to the Chinese defense industrial base" and DOD's evidentiary basis for finding that this phrase describes Hesai (Hesai Technology v. U.S. Dep't of Def., D.D.C. # 24-01381).
An Iranian national and U.S. resident was arrested for allegedly exporting electronics used in railway signaling and telecommunications systems in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, DOJ announced last week. Bahram Ostovari is charged with one count of conspiring to violate the IEEPA and three counts of violating the IEEPA, facing a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for each count.
Kyrgyz national Sergei Zharnovnikov pleaded guilty June 25 to conspiracy to illegally export firearms and ammunition to Russia, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern Dstrict of New York announced. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
The U.S. and law firm Husch Blackwell again swapped briefs June 13 in the firm’s Freedom of Information Act dispute. Husch Blackwell said the government, which provided a list of more than 100 disclosed and undisclosed documents related to the firm’s FOIA request regarding an Entity List listing when it filed for summary judgment (see 2505300055), still wasn’t making clear which documents were actually responsive to the request (Husch Blackwell v. Department of Commerce, D.D.C. # 1:24-02733).
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week officially released its enforcement order, charging letter and settlement agreement involving Unicat Catalyst Technologies, the Texas-based industrial equipment supplier that recently was assessed millions of dollars in combined penalties by BIS, DOJ and the Office of Foreign Assets Control for allegedly violating export control and sanctions laws (see 2506170047).
A Spanish national living in the United Arab Emirates pleaded guilty on June 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to conspiring to illegally export U.S.-origin radio communications technology to Russian end users without a license, DOJ announced. Sentencing is set for Sept. 30.
A Venezuelan national and a U.S. citizen were arrested on June 13 and charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Venezuela by selling "chemical catalysts, industrial equipment, and associated services" to sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned steel mills and petrochemical companies, DOJ announced. The Venezuelan national, Juan Carlos Cairo-Padron, and the U.S. citizen, Thomas Fortinberry, both face a maximum of 20 years in prison for sanctions and money laundering counts and 10 years in prison for smuggling.