The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security has imposed a $1.5 million civil penalty on Exyte Management GmbH, a Germany-based engineering and construction firm, for export-control violations tied to semiconductor projects in China, according to a settlement order issued this month.

The Federal Maritime Commission on January 6 increased civil penalties against MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company to $22.67 million, overturning part of an administrative law judge’s decision and concluding that widespread misbilling of non-operating refrigerated containers amounted to an unlawful practice under the Shipping Act.

A former low-level employee of TD Bank N.A. pleaded guilty Tuesday to facilitating a large-scale money laundering scheme that moved hundreds of millions of dollars through bank accounts, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has warned importers and exporters of a marked increase in illegal transshipment schemes designed to evade U.S. trade enforcement measures, citing heightened risks for companies across multiple high-duty sectors.

CBP is offering quarterly webinars throughout FY26 on how to report suspected trade violations online. The first round of webinars will be held on January 13 and 15. CBP will be offering free webinars on how anyone can report suspected trade violations online using the Trade Violations Reporting tool, as well as how to file EAPA allegations.

When the U.S. Department of Justice rounded out the year with a settlement topping $54.4 million, the largest ever recorded to resolve tariff fraud allegations, it was a holiday happy ending more than three years in making for whistleblower attorney Jonathan Tycko.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on Monday announced an enforcement operation targeting more than 100 money services businesses operating along the U.S.–Mexico border, signaling a continued shift of federal anti-money-laundering resources toward criminal activity linked to the southern border.

Ceratizit USA LLC, a Charlotte, North Carolina–based distributor of tungsten carbide products, agreed to pay $54.4 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by evading U.S. customs duties on imports from China, the Justice Department announced.

The Justice Department on Dec. 18 resolved a criminal trade fraud investigation into North American subsidiaries of Japanese trading giant Itochu International over a scheme to evade Section 301 tariffs on plastic resin imported from China by falsifying country-of-origin declarations.

OFAC has reached a $3.1 million settlement with Exodus Movement, Inc., an Omaha-based financial technology company that develops non-custodial digital asset wallet software, to resolve potential civil liability for violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

OFAC has removed Russian dual-use smugglers Nikita Aleksandrovich Sobolev and Kirill Aleksandrovich Astrakhan from its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, issuing no public explanation for the decision or indication of what circumstances had changed.

A former oil trader was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison on Tuesday for his role in an international bribery and money-laundering scheme involving Brazil’s state-owned oil company, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Glenn Oztemel, 66, of Westport, Conn., was also ordered to pay a $300,000 fine.

Federal prosecutors charged two men and unsealed additional allegations detailing a sophisticated scheme to illicitly acquire and export advanced Nvidia AI processors to China and Hong Kong, in violation of U.S. export-control laws.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has imposed a $1,092,000 penalty on a former U.S. government official and attorney who continued administering a U.S.-based family trust linked to a Russian oligarch after the oligarch was designated on April 6, 2018.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on December 2 announced an $11,485,352 settlement with Chicago-based IPI Partners, LLC for 51 apparent violations of U.S. sanctions on Russia. The firm managed a $50 million investment that traced back to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov—and continued doing so for four years after Kerimov’s April 2018 SDN designation.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti used a recent address on health-care fraud to reaffirm the Criminal Division’s wider corporate-enforcement posture, emphasizing that voluntary self-disclosure remains the most direct avenue for companies seeking favorable treatment.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is preparing to ease anti-money-laundering compliance obligations for community banks, announcing targeted changes to how examiners will assess Bank Secrecy Act programs beginning in 2026.

The Justice Department has charged two U.S. citizens and two Chinese nationals in an alleged two-year scheme to illegally export high-end NVIDIA artificial-intelligence processors and related supercomputing equipment to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), reinforcing concerns about persistent gaps in chip-export enforcement and strengthening calls for mandatory AI-chip tracking measures.

Federal prosecutors have charged Indonesian jewelry manufacturer PT Untung Bersama Sejahtera (UBS Gold), its co-owner, and two employees with orchestrating overlapping schemes that allegedly evaded more than $86 million in U.S. customs duties and tariffs on over $1.2 billion in imports.

The Federal Maritime Commission recovered $1.35 million in civil penalties through two recently completed compromise agreements addressing alleged Shipping Act violations by a vessel-operating common carrier and a non-vessel-operating common carrier.