Javier Aguilar of Houston, former trader at energy trading firm Vitol, pleaded guilty Aug. 21 to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and taking part in interstate and foreign commerce to distribute bribery proceeds, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced. Aguilar paid bribes to officials at the procurement wing of PEMEX, a Mexican state-owned oil company.
Latvia citizen Oleg Chistyakov appeared in a U.S. court Aug. 21 after being extradited from Latvia to face charges that he violated U.S. export controls by shipping "sophisticated avionics equipment" to Russian companies, DOJ announced.
Venezuela citizen George Semerene Quintero pleaded guilty Aug. 20 to conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company where he worked, DOJ announced.
U.S.-Iranian national Jeffrey Nader was charged Aug. 14 with conspiring to illegally export U.S.-made aircraft parts, including components used in military aircraft, to Iran, DOJ announced.
U.S. Army intelligence analyst Korbein Schultz pleaded guilty Aug. 13 to conspiring to "obtain and disclose national defense information," illicitly exporting data related to defense articles to China, and conspiring to illegally export defense articles and bribery, DOJ announced. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each export-related charge.
Bulgarian national Milan Dimitrov appeared Aug. 12 in a federal court for allegedly engaging in a scheme to violate U.S. export controls, DOJ announced. Extradited from Greece, Dimitrov is charged with conspiring with Russian citizen Ilias Sabirov and Bulgarian national Dimitar Dimitrov to procure "sensitive radiation-hardened integrated circuits" from the U.S. and export them to Russia via Bulgaria (see 2012210013).
Russian-German national Arthur Petrov was extradited to the U.S., making his initial appearance in court Aug. 9 for allegedly committing export control violations, smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering, DOJ announced. Extradited from Cyprus, Petrov was charged for his part in a scheme to ship more than $225,000 worth of U.S.-sourced microelectronics to companies supplying weapons to the Russian military.
Three election voting machine and service provider company executives, along with a former chairman of the Philippines' Commission on Elections, were charged with bribing officials in the Philippines to retain business in the 2016 Philippines elections, DOJ announced. A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment against the four men Aug. 8, charging two of them with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and violating the FCPA.
Womenswear company Alexis will pay nearly $7.7 million to settle a whistleblower False Claims Act case, which alleged that the company underpaid customs duties on its apparel imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Aug. 9.
Wisconsin companies Precision Cable Assemblies and Global Engineered Products, along with their chief executives Ryan Schmus and Richard Horky, paid more than $10 million to settle charges they avoided millions of dollars in customs duties on Chinese goods, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced.