Peter Sotis and Emilie Voissem, two Florida residents, were sentenced Jan. 12 for conspiring to and illegally attempting to ship export-controlled rebreather diving equipment to Libya, the Department of Justice said. Sotis will spend 57 months in prison while Voissem will serve a five-month sentence in prison and a five-month term in home confinement. The scheme to illegally export the rebreather equipment -- an item that is export controlled due to its enhanced underwater breathing capabilities and dual use as a military and civilian item -- was hatched in August 2016.

The State Department is adjusting its civil monetary penalties for inflation, the agency said in a notice released Jan. 7. The new amounts, which include higher maximum penalties for violations of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the Arms Export Control Act, will apply only to penalties assessed on or after Jan. 10, the agency said.

Xiang Haitao, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty Jan. 6 to conspiracy to steal a trade secret from international agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto to benefit the Chinese government, the Department of Justice said. Xiang worked at the company, now part of Bayer, and its subsidiary, The Climate Corporation, during 2008-2017 as an imaging scientist. Monsanto and The Climate Corporation developed a digital, online farming software platform used to collect and store field data and bolster productivity for farmers, DOJ said. The Nutrient Optimizer was a key piece of this technology and ended up being the target of Xiang's trade theft efforts.

Israel’s Justice Ministry charged Israeli drone maker Aeronautics and three senior employees with violating the country’s defense export control laws, according to a Dec. 30 report from Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. An Israeli court placed a gag order on all details relating to the case, “presumably because the buyer is a country with whom Israel has sensitive relations or that exposure of details could harm Israeli drone sales,” The Jerusalem Post said in a Dec. 29 report. Haaretz said Aeronautics has been under investigation for several years for violating export laws.

Former U.S. Navy sailor Ye Sang "Ivy" Wang of San Diego was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $20,000 for conspiring with her husband, Shaohua "Eric" Wang, to illegally export military equipment to China, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California said. Ivy Wang bought military equipment for Naval Special Warfare units as part of her duties in her role as a logistics specialist first class assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Command in 2015-2019. In March 2018, Wang ordered a device for identifying U.S. military personnel in the field -- an item that was subject to Commerce Department export controls. Deployed in Iraq at the time the object arrived in San Diego, Wang told her command that the package containing the device was something she bought for her husband for a camping trip, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Instead, she bought the device so her husband could resell it to China for a profit. In October 2018, Ivy Wang told agents interviewing her that her husband was illegally shipping military equipment to China. Even still, Ivy Wang took the device from her Navy command and gave it to her husband, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Eric Wang pleaded guilty in 2019 to illegally selling export-controlled military equipment to China through his business and using his wife's Navy position to buy the equipment. Eric Wang also admitted to maintaining a warehouse in China to keep the equipment, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. “This defendant used her position of trust to put the Navy and the nation at risk, and the sentence imposed today holds her accountable for her actions,” acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said.

The European Council appointed nine judges to the European Union Court of Justice General Court, the council said in a Dec. 21 news release. Six -- Lauri Madise and Iko Nomm of Estonia, Anna Marcoulli and Savvas Papasavvas of Cyprus, and Tuula Pynna and Heikki Kanninen of Finland -- were reappointed for a term running Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2028. Damjan Kukovec of Slovenia was appointed for a tenure running from the date of entry into force of the appointing decision until Aug. 31, 2025; the appointment is part of a phased addition of judges to the General Court that began in September 2019. Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos of Greece and Suzanne Kingston of Ireland were appointed for terms running until Aug. 31, 2022, and Aug. 31, 2025, respectively; the appointments fill unexpired terms of judges who received appointments to the Court of Justice.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration ordered Bahrain to pay more than $270 million in legal fees and damages to Iranian state-owned Bank Saderat and Bank Melli, The Washington Post reported. The win for the Iranian banks came after Bahrain's forced closure of Future Bank in 2015, the result of allegations that the institution facilitated money laundering and the evasion of U.S. and U.N. sanctions. A three-arbitrator panel at the court held that Bahrain violated its own banking policies, motivated primarily by a political animus toward Iran. Future Bank, established in Bahrain in 2004 with the backing of the two Iranian banks, was forced to close its doors a few weeks after the Iran nuclear agreement was signed by Iran and the U.S, along with five other world power countries.

Jorge Orencel, owner and operator of Maryland-based export business Sumtech, pleaded guilty on Dec. 17 to attempting to smuggle goods out of the U.S. without the required export license, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland said. Sumtech, under Orencel's leadership. specialized in distributing "high technology laboratory devices," across the globe, but in particular to South America, Asia and the Middle East. Orencel was busted for shipping ionization chambers to Hong Kong, while telling the company he bought the chambers from that he intended to ship the goods to Argentina. Orencel also intentionally undervalued the chambers themselves, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Jose Rafael Vasquez, a resident of Dallas, was sentenced on Dec. 15 to 63 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for attempting to export firearms, firearm magazines and thousands of rounds of ammunition to Mexico, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas said. Vasquez attempted to leave the U.S. at the Laredo Port of Entry into Mexico in October 2020, when law enforcement found bundles of goods zip-tied to the bottom of his vehicle containing ammunition. After further inspecting the car, border officials found three AK-47 rifles, eight semi-automatic handguns, 16 handgun magazines and over 4,700 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition inside the vehicle, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares pleaded guilty on Dec. 14 to conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of a massive bribery scheme that has already seen punishments doled out to Brazil-based global construction conglomerate Odebrecht S.A., the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said. The conglomerate pleaded guilty in 2016 to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for a bribery and money laundering scheme in Panama. Luis Martinelli Linares, Ricardo's brother, pleaded guilty on Dec. 2 to the same misconduct.