The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit vacated the sentencing of a Jordanian-born U.S. citizen for illicit arms dealings in guided surface-to-air missiles due to a venue error, in an April 12 opinion. Finding that the District Court for the Central District of California was not the proper court to challenge Rami Ghanem for the alleged conspiracy to deal the missiles, the 9th Circuit vacated the sentencing and remanded the case. Ghanem was first arrested in Greece, then extradited to New York, making the Eastern District of New York the proper home for the case, the 9th Circuit said.

The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a Maryland company and its owner $42,000 for illegally exporting crime control items, BIS said in an April 15 order. The agency said Panther Trading Company (PTC) of Landsdowne and its owner, Harsimran Singh, illegally exported $11,000 worth of crime control equipment to Mexico, $22,000 worth of goods to the Dominican Republic and helped a Nigerian buyer buy $12,343 worth of goods.

A lawyer for Turkish government-owned bank Halkbank made the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit that it is immune from prosecution due to protections under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, in an April 12 oral argument. Simon Latcovich of Williams & Connolly asserted that the government had no jurisdiction over the bank since the bank is owned by the Turkish government and that the FSIA does not extend jurisdiction over sovereign states for criminal cases. Latcovich also claimed that even if the FSIA allowed for this jurisdiction, Halkbank would still be exempt from prosecution under common law. His argument follows that if the courts were to find that immunity for sovereign states was not extended to criminal cases under the FSIA, this would erode the congressional mandate of the act without a word from the body itself.

Judge Mark Barnett has taken over as the chief judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade, following Judge Timothy Stanceu's assumption of senior status April 5 (see 2103160061), according to the court's website. Barnett joined the court in 2013 as a President Barack Obama appointee. He previously practiced in the international trade group at Steptoe & Johnson and served in the Office of Chief Counsel for Import Administration at the Commerce Department. He was the longest tenured judge at CIT at the time of Stanceu's move to senior status.

Export compliance costs and awareness will likely rise for aircraft transactions due to increased compliance by aircraft sellers following the seizure of 12 aircraft on export violation charges, Vedder Price's David Hernandez said. In an April 5 report, Hernandez looked at the impacts of the indictments of eight individuals charged with drug trafficking and export violation conspiracies, including the owner of Aircraft Guaranty Corporation (see 2103010028). The indictments arose from a series of investigations into the customs export practices of U.S.-based trust companies serving as trustees in aircraft ownership trusts with non-U.S. citizens, called Non-Citizen Trusts.

The president of a Long Island, New York-based cosmetics company, Michael Rose, was arrested for allegedly selling more than $350,000 in cosmetic goods to an Iranian importer in violation of U.S. sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced in an April 6 news release. Between 2015 and 2018, Rose, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, allegedly exported the goods to an Iranian importer to fulfill a contract the two parties signed, making the importer the sole distributor of Rose's cosmetics in Iran. The goods skirted U.S. sanctions via front companies that had Rose sending his cosmetics to the United Arab Emirates. Rose also allegedly filed false and misleading information on Commerce Department Shipper's Export Declaration forms, declaring that the “ultimate consignee” for the goods was the UAE and not Iran.

Venezuela was denied a stay of a more than $234 million arbitration award payment to Luxembourg-based steel pipe and tube supplier Tenaris S.A. since the stay would be redundant due to current restrictions on the payment, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in a March 29 decision. Due to current Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions on Venezuela, enforcement of the award cannot be completed until Tenaris receives a license from OFAC or until U.S. sanctions on Venezuela are lifted entirely. Judge Carl Nichols found that with the OFAC restrictions, Venezuela is not required to pay until Tenaris receives the agency's permission, so a stay “does nothing to alter the status quo.” The arbitration payment was awarded to Tenaris by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes for Venezuela's expropriation of Tenaris assets without compensation.

Russian national Oleg Vladislavovich Nikitin, general director of St. Petersburg, Russia-based energy company KS Engineering, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to conspiracy to skirt export controls, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced in a press release. Nikitin, admitted to attempting to sell a power turbine to a Russian company attempting to use it on an Arctic deepwater drilling platform -- a process banned by the Commerce Department without a license. An unnamed Russian government-controlled business contracted with Nikitin to buy the turbine from a U.S. manufacturer for $17.3 million. Nikitin, along with two others, was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, attempting to carry out the transaction for the turbine.

The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked export privileges for five people after they were convicted of violating various export control laws, including illegal shipments of guns, ammunition and other military items, BIS said in March 25 orders.

Ten Iranian nationals are charged with running a 20-year scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran by disguising more than $300 million worth of transactions, the Department of Justice said in a March 19 news release. The Iranian citizens allegedly made the purchases, including two $25 million oil tankers, on Iran's behalf via front companies in Los Angeles, Canada, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, DOJ said. The U.S. District Court of Los Angeles case, filed in October 2020, was unsealed on March 19. A separate forfeiture complaint was filed the same day on the same individuals, seeking a money laundering penalty of $157,332,367. The individuals are accused of violating the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. They face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison if convicted, although they are believed to be located outside the U.S.