Rixon Rafael Moreno Oropeza, a Venezuelan national and businessman, was charged with making bribe payments and money laundering in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, DOJ announced. Per the indictment returned to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Moreno laundered the money made from inflated procurement contracts that were received by making bribes to senior executives at Petropiar -- a joint venture of Venezuela's state-owned energy company and an American oil company.

Chinese shipping giant China International Marine Containers Group Co. ditched its effort to acquire Maersk Container Industry and Maersk Container Industry Qingdao Ltd. (collectively, MCI) following a DOJ investigation, DOJ announced. During the investigation, DOJ found that the merger would have combined two of the globe's four suppliers of insulated container boxes and refrigerated shipping containers and consolidated over 90% of insulated container box and refrigerated shipping container production under Chinese state-owned or state-controlled entities.

Jose Manuel Perez, a resident of Oxnard, California, pleaded guilty on Aug. 24 to illegally importing over 1,700 wild animals, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said. The illegally smuggled animals include over 60 reptiles that were found hidden in his clothes at the U.S.-Mexico border. Perez pleaded guilty to two counts of smuggling goods into the U.S. and one count of wildlife trafficking.

Three Mexican nationals -- Jonathan Roberto Rojas-Casados, Roberto Rojas-Ramirez and Roberto Angel Roman-Alvarez -- were charged with attempted exportation of wildlife, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas announced Aug. 23. The trio allegedly attempted to ship over 160 animals out of the U.S. in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act since the men did not have a license or permission to export the wildlife.

Liberian national Moazu Kromah, a resident of Uganda, was sentenced to prison for conspiring to traffic in rhinoceros horns and elephant ivory worth millions of dollars, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. Kromah will spend 63 months in prison for poaching around 35 rhinoceros and over 100 elephants.

Guillermo Gomez-Lazcano, an undocumented Mexican national living in Houston, was sentenced to federal prison for his role in a scheme to export hundreds of firearms to criminal organizations in Mexico, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas announced. Gomez-Lazcano is the 18th identified member of the scheme and pleaded guilty in April to being an alien in possession of a firearm, possessing a machine gun and engaging in the conspiracy to possess with intent to sell a controlled substance. Gomez-Lazcano was sentenced to 200 months in federal prison.

The CEO of two personal protective equipment companies will pay more than $157,000 in civil penalties to settle a lawsuit referred recently to DOJ over false "Made in USA" claims, the Federal Trade Commission said in a news release. FTC alleged that Adam Harmon and two companies he controlled, Axis LED Group and ALG-Health, deceptively said in marketing materials and labels that the products were made in the U.S. (United States v. Axis LED Group, et al., N.Dist. Ohio # 3:22-01389). "Harmon and ALG made numerous false and misleading claims that their PPE products were all or virtually all made in the United States, even though the products were wholly imported, or incorporated significant imported materials or subcomponents," the agency said. "These claims and other false statements -- including that the defendants’ products were U.S.-origin respirators, certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety (NIOSH) -- violated the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act." Under a proposed settlement order, Harmon and the companies must stop with the deceptive origin claims and substantiate all Made in USA language. Harmon and the companies also must "pay a $157,683.37 civil penalty, which is due immediately," FTC said. "The defendants are also subject to a $2.8 million redress judgment, which is suspended due to their inability to pay. Should the FTC discover that the defendants have misstated the value of any assets or failed to disclose them, the agency will "seek to have the suspension lifted and the full judgment due immediately."

The U.S. obtained a warrant to seize an airplane owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrei Skoch, DOJ said Aug. 8. The agency said the Airbus A319-100 aircraft was designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control in June and is owned by Skoch through a series of shell companies and trusts tied to his “romantic partner.” The aircraft is worth more than $90 million, DOJ said.

The U.S. has filed a slew of criminal indictments aimed at U.S. companies engaged in the trade of shark fins to show how they take advantage of federal and state laws to engage in the practice, The Associated Press reported. For instance, a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida accuses Elite Sky International -- a Florida-based exporter -- of falsely labeling around 5,666 pounds of shark fins meant for China as live Florida spiny lobsters.

Three men currently believed to be residing in Lebanon -- George Ajaltouni, Jean Issa and Nakhle "Mike" Nader -- were charged with smuggling and illegally exporting firearms from Ohio to Lebanon, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio announced. Writing three indictments that were unsealed in the District Court on July 26, the U.S. Attorney's Office lays out separate smuggling schemes -- one with Ajaltouni and Issa, one with just Ajaltouni and the other just with Nader, though it is believed that Ajaltouni and Nader are acquaintances currently living near Batroun, Lebanon.