Commerce denied export privileges for two Iranian nationals and their company after they tried to export a $15,000 micro drill press from the U.S. to Iran, Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a July 8 denied export order. Commerce also fined them $300,000 for trying to violate the Export Administration Regulations and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.

A Florida resident was arrested for export violations after he illegally shipped hundreds of assault rifle parts to an Argentine weapons trafficking organization, the Justice Department said in a July 12 press release. Cristian German Barrera, who was charged with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, did not have the proper license to export AR-15 assault rifle parts to Argentina, the Justice Department said. U.S. Homeland Security Investigations officials worked with Argentine law enforcement to seize the weapons parts, which included long arms, handguns, a mortar round and more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition, the press release said.

A recent Supreme Court case on courts' deference to federal agencies will likely result in tougher legal scrutiny of trade policies made by the Commerce Department, CBP and other agencies that affect trade, said Devin Sikes, a lawyer at Akin Gump. Sikes wrote that the U.S. Court of International Trade and federal appeals courts will be doing deeper reviews of federal agencies' trade regulations that could have ambiguity. "Federal agencies operating in the international trade arena likewise will need to more fully explain their reasons for interpreting a regulation in a particular way," Sikes wrote. "These agencies may no longer assert ambiguity based on the regulation’s terms and expect deference from the courts. Expect an increase in the number of challenges filed contesting an agency’s interpretation of its own regulations."

A Los Angeles resident was found guilty of conspiring to illegally export semiconductor chips to China, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Department of Justice said in a July 2 press release. Yi-Chi Shih faces a maximum prison sentence of 219 years.

Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security banned export privileges for a man who was convicted of illegally exporting gas turbine parts in 2018, Commerce said in a June 28 order. Commerce said the man, Olaf Tepper, violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after he exported parts to Germany that were intended for an end-user in Iran. Tepper did not have the proper export license from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Tepper was sentenced to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine in addition to the export ban, which included revoking all of Tepper’s BIS-related licenses. The ban will last 10 years after his conviction date of Aug. 3, 2018, Commerce said.

John Peterson and Brunella Zuppone were arrested June 26 and charged with "conspiracy to violate and attempted violations of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a June 28 news release. The pair are alleged to have tried to "illegally export to Argentina defense articles, specifically, parts and components for AR-15 assault rifles, which were smuggled across international borders by a transnational weapons trafficking group in Argentina," the Justice Department said. Neither had required licenses from the State Department for exporting such goods, it said.

The owner of Rapid Export Services in Miami pleaded guilty on June 12 to one count of illegally smuggling goods from the U.S., the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a June 20 news release. Juan Carlos Rodriguez Espinoza "faces a maximum statutory sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine," the Department of Justice said. Rodriguez is said to have received 13 containers of alcohol and cigarettes in 2016 from Panama. He then arranged for the containers to be held in-bond at a bonded warehouse operated by Double Ace, Inc.

The Department of Justice indicted a group of alleged elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn traffickers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a June 13 news release. The indictment names four individuals, two of whom were arrested in Uganda or Senegal, while two Kenyans "remain fugitives." Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said "the alleged enterprise, responsible for the illegal slaughter of dozens of rhinos and more than 100 elephants, was as destructive to protected species as it was lucrative." DOJ said the horns and ivory involved were valued at more than $7 million.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is amending regulations to adjust for inflation by increasing the maximum amount of civil monetary penalties that the agency may impose for certain violations, OFAC said in a June 13 update on its website and a notice scheduled to be published in the June 14 Federal Register. The change was made “to implement for 2019 the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990,” the notice said. OFAC is increasing the maximum amount of penalties that fall under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and the Clean Diamond Trade Act.

New Jersey resident Joyce Eliabachus pleaded guilty to charges related to her role in illegally smuggling millions of dollars worth of aircraft parts to the U.S., the U.S. Attorney’s Office for District of New Jersey said in a June 11 news release. "Eliabachus and others allegedly ran an international smuggling ring that shipped $2 million in aircraft parts to multiple Iranian airlines, including a company that has provided financial, material, and technological support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. “This arrest, which was made possible by a close collaboration between our office and our partners at Homeland Security Investigations and the Office of Export Enforcement, has snuffed out another source of funds and goods to overseas entities that may endanger our national and economic security.” Eliabachus was the principal officer of Edsun Equipments LLC, an aviation parts trading company run out of her Morristown, New Jersey, residence, the Justice Department said.