Trafigura Beheer, a trading company operating in Switzerland, plead guilty to a foreign bribery scheme. They’ll pay >$126 million to resolve FCPA violations. They paid bribes to the Brazilian government to secure business with the BR state-owned oil company. Read…

Justice announced the sentence of a US citizen living in Taiwan to two years in federal prison for a conspiracy related to the export of defense materials to Iran. He also has to pay a $10,000 fine. This person shipped…

Yesterday an indictment was unsealed that charged seven PRC nationals with conspiracy of hacking and wire fraud. They spent ~14 years targeting businesses and political officials for economic and espionage and foreign intelligence objectives on behalf of China. There’s a…

The Environmental Protection Agency settled with Resonac America to address their illegal import of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) at the port of LA in 2023 and 2024. They made four imports. They’ll destroy 1,693 pounds of HFCs and pay a $416,003 penalty.…

The Commerce Department published revisions to the EAR 3/14/2024 to increase restrictions on exports to Nicaragua. This is coming after the State Department added Nicaragua to the list of proscribed countries under ITAR. Read More

A Montana rancher has been working for 10+ years to create giant sheep for hunting. Hunting ranches, where animals are raised and then hunted, are illegal in MT since 2000, but Schubarth’s was grandfathered in, and other states still allow…

Ford is agreeing to pay $365M to settle civil penalty claims from CBP relating to misclassified and undervalued vehicles. Read More

A Chinese national who was employed as a software engineer at Google was stealing Google’s proprietary information on AI. He transferred it to his personal account, and planned to sell it to PRC-based companies. He was arrested in Newark. The…

BIS announced the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making that they are considering implemented regarding connected vehicles. This is a priority for the current administration, especially as it relates to China. Read More

The February report from the USTR on trade relations with China states that the US wants to maintain its trade relationship with China, and that Beijing has been moving to sever it. The report reiterates that China continues to not…

Commerce issued a press release on the additional entities (900+!) that they’re adding to the Entity List for supporting the war effort on behalf of Russia, updated the high priority items list, and released a business advisory for doing business…