Whistleblower law firm Mark A. Strauss Law issued a news release April 5 seeking whistleblowers to sign up for a consultation if they have information on customs fraud via the transshipment of Chinese-origin goods through other countries. The news release says whistleblowers can receive awards of 15%-30% of recoveries made under the False Claims Act, and the firm offers a free consultation for anyone that knows of goods subject to the Section 301 tariffs on China goods that are being transshipped through such countries as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan in attempts to skirt the U.S. duties.

A $90 million yacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg was seized by Spanish law enforcement at the behest of the U.S., DOJ announced April 4. The 255-foot luxury yacht, the Tango, was subject to forfeiture following the issuance of a seizure warrant filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The warrant alleged that the yacht was subject to forfeiture based on violations of U.S. bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions laws, DOJ said.

Charles Hunter Hobson, a former coal company executive, was arrested for allegedly violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a scheme to bribe Egyptian government officials over contracts with an Egyptian state-owned company, Al Nasr for Coke and Chemicals, DOJ said. Hobson, of Knoxville, Tennessee, is also charged with laundering funds and receiving kickbacks. He faces one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, two counts of violating the FCPA, one count of conspiracy to launder money, two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Tuqiang Xie, of Irvine, California, was sentenced to a year in prison for brokering the sales of export-controlled defense articles from China and filing a false corporate tax return, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois said March 31. In 2019, Xie pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act and one count of filing a false tax return. Sentencing took place after hearing in Chicago. In the plea agreement, Xie admitted to using his Irvine-based company, Bio-Medical Optics, as a broker for the shipment of defense articles listed on the U.S. Munitions List and the U.S. Munitions Import List. Xie had not obtained the required export license for these items.

Jose Manuel Perez, of Oxnard, California, was charged in a superseding indictment with allegedly illegally importing over 1,700 reptiles, including 60 found in his clothes, into the U.S. from Mexico, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said March 24. Perez faces one count of conspiracy, nine counts of smuggling goods into the U.S. and two counts of wildlife trafficking. His sister, Stephany Perez, also of Oxnard, is charged in the indictment with conspiracy.

A Texas U.S. district court found that Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp. committed visa fraud to get employees in the U.S. Making the determination during a hearing on whether to revoke ZTE's probation for violating sanctions on Iran, Judge Ed Kinkeade of the Northern District of Texas said that the court decided not to revoke it and to resentence ZTE after looking at the evidence (United States v. ZTE Corporation, N.D. Tex. #3:17-00120).

United Parcel Service agreed to pay close to $5.4 million to resolve a potential False Claims Act charge that the company allegedly falsely reported information about the transfer of U.S. mail to foreign posts under contracts with the U.S. Postal Service, DOJ announced March 21. According to the settlement agreement, USPS contracted with UPS to pick up mail at six locations in the U.S. and various Department of Defense and State Department locations abroad, then ship it to foreign locations. The U.S. alleges that from 2010 to 2016, UPS knowingly submitted delivery scans or other delivery information that lied about the deliveries, including the time that UPS handed over the mail to foreign postal administrations or other recipients. The U.S. alleged that UPS did that so as to not be docked pay for delivering packages late.

Hyun Ki Shin and Hyuk Jin Kwon, two South Korean nationals, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Texas for their role in a conspiracy to dampen trade and defraud the U.S. military in South Korea, DOJ said. Shin and Kwon worked as officers of a South Korean construction company that carried out subcontract work on the military bases in South Korea. Starting in 2018, the pair, along with others, worked to "rig bids and fix prices for subcontract work," defrauding the Defense Department to obtain millions of dollars in contracting work in the process, DOJ said.

Daniel D'Andrea Golindano and Luis Javier Sanchez Rangel, two former senior Venezuelan prosecutors, were charged with money laundering for accepting over $1 million in bribes in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matter, DOJ said March 8. Each is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property. D'Andrea and Sanchez face up to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy to commit money laundering charge and up to 10 years in prison for each count of engaging in transactions in criminally derived property.

Joe Sery, former owner and CEO of San Diego-based Tungsten Heavy Powder & Parts, and his brother, Dror Sery, were arrested and charged with violating federal export laws by shipping defense products listed on the U.S. Munitions List without obtaining a proper export license, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California said March 4. The Sery brothers' alleged actions violated export laws under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The brothers are charged with conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., exportation of defense articles without a license and criminal forfeiture. The latter charge has a maximum 20-year prison sentence and $1 million fine.