The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico ordered Puerto Rican companies Pharmacare and China District PR and their owner, Juan Reynoso, to stop importing dangerous children's toys, the Department of Justice said. The toys, along with other consumer products, violated the Consumer Product Safety Act and the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, among other laws, warranting an order from the court permanently enjoining the products' entry, DOJ said. The products allegedly had dangerous levels of lead and phthalates, according to the U.S.'s complaint against Reynoso and his companies. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has collected a total of 116 samples of these products since 2017, with 32 coming from Pharmacare and 84 from China District. These goods also included bicycle helmets, rattles and pacifiers that did not meet safety or labeling requirements, the DOJ complaint said.

Iranian national Mehrdad Ansari, a resident of the United Arab Emirates and Germany, was sentenced Sept. 14, after a May 2021 conviction by a federal jury (see 2105100007), to 63 months in prison for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Department of Justice said. Ansari was convicted for his role in a scheme to obtain military sensitive parts for Iran in violation of the Iranian Trade Embargo, DOJ said. This scheme sought to obtain many dual-use military and civilian goods that could be used for many elements of Iran's armed forces, including for “nuclear weapons, missile guidance and development, secure tactical radio communications, offensive electronic warfare, military electronic countermeasures (radio jamming) and radar warning and surveillance systems,” DOJ said.

Three former U.S. intelligence community or military members -- Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke -- entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay more than $1.68 million to resolve export control violation charges, the Department of Justice said. The trio worked as senior managers at a United Arab Emirates-based company that carried out computer hacking operations to benefit the UAE government during 2016 to 2019, DOJ said. All three were told repeatedly that their work constituted a “defense service” under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, requiring a license from the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Nevertheless, all three continued their hacking without a license, court documents laid out.

Three members of a Florida family were charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran and money laundering, the Department of Justice said. Mohammad Faghihi, along with his wife, Farzeneh Modarresi, and sister, Faezeh Faghihi, led Florida-based Express Gene -- a company that allegedly received multiple wire transfers from accounts in Malaysia, China, Singapore, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, totaling nearly $3.5 million, between October 2016 and November 2020. Some of this money allegedly was used to buy and then ship genetic sequencing equipment to Iran without a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, DOJ said.

Byungsu Kim, a South Korean national extradited to the U.S. from South Africa, pleaded guilty to attempting to illegally export Dudleya succulent plants, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California said. Kim pulled the plants, worth more than $600,000, from the ground at various state parks in Northern California and attempted to ship them to Asia. Kim carried out the scheme with two co-defendants: Bong Jun Kim, who served a four-month prison sentence, and Youngin Back, who remains a fugitive.

A district court judge in Massachusetts sentenced Chinese national Shuren Qin to two years in prison for exporting hydrophones with anti-submarine applications to a Chinese military university on the Commerce Department's Entity List, in a Sept. 1 sentencing memorandum. Judge Denise Casper carried out the sentencing and also ruled that Qin will be placed on supervised release for two years following his prison sentence and will pay a fine of $20,000 (United States v. Shuren Qin, D.C. Mass. #18-10205).

Afework Bereket, former employee of Swedish telecommunications giant Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and dual citizen of Ethiopia and Sweden, was indicted for his alleged role in a bribery scheme to pay off government officials in Djibouti, the Department of Justice said Sept. 8. Bereket allegedly engaged in the scheme from 2010 to 2014 in which he served as Ericsson's account manager for the Horn of Africa. He purportedly bribed two high-level officials in the small African nation's executive branch and one at its state-owned telecommunications company to win a contract valued at around $24 million. The scheme involved Bereket and others allegedly leading an Ericsson subsidiary to enter into a fraudulent contract with a consulting company that then signed off on fake invoices to hide the bribe payments, DOJ said. The bribe payments were routed through bank accounts in the U.S. to hide the funds, it said.

Global Plywood and Lumber Trading LLC was sentenced to pay $200,000 in restitution to Peru's Ministry of Environment after pleading guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice said. The company admitted to importing illegally sourced timber from the Peruvian Amazon, in violation of the Lacey Act. The court also ordered the company to pay a $5,000 fine. In 2015, Global Plywood bought around 1,135 cubic meters of hardwood blanks from three suppliers in Peru, which then arrived at the Port of Houston, where it was seized by CBP (see 1606090042). In its guilty plea, Global Plywood admitted not obtaining or reviewing relevant harvest permits or Forest Travel Guides from SIGO, an open-source website run by the Peruvian government; failing to check SIGO for irregularities connected with its purchased timber; and relying on suppliers' statements without conducting due diligence, DOJ said. Global Plywood dissolved in 2017, forfeiting the illegal timber after civil action commenced.

Rashad Sargeant, resident of College Park, Georgia, and David Johnson of Belleville, Illinois, pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 to illegally exporting firearms to Barbados, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia said. The pair sent at least 30 guns to Barbados after destroying the firearms' serial numbers and packing them in false compartments in boxes, the U.S. Attorney said. According to court documents, Johnson recruited Shunquez Stephens and others to buy the guns from federally licensed dealers and make false statements to the dealers by pledging that they were being bought for themselves. Sargeant and Johnson then mailed the guns to Barbados through carriers such as UPS, FedEx and DHL, using fake identifications, the release said.

Maryland residents Wilson Nuyila Tita of Owings Mills, Eric Fru Nji of Fort Washington and Wilson Che Fonguh of Bowie were charged Aug. 27 in a federal indictment at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland with conspiracty to violate the Arms Export Control Act and the Export Reform Control Act, the Department of Justice said. The three allegedly shipped firearms and ammunition from the U.S. to Nigeria, violating export restrictions.