Vol 46 No. 40, October 5, 2026

The memorandum sets investigation priorities for the DOJ’s Fraud Division and identifies factors prosecutors must weigh heavily in corporate charging decisions and negotiated resolutions, including management involvement, harm to taxpayer-funded programs, national security threats and immigration offenses. It also directs new whistleblower incentives, pairing targeted enforcement with efforts to encourage disclosures from companies and individuals, including participants in the misconduct.

A California technology executive was arrested October 1 on charges that he helped smuggle more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China through intermediaries in Malaysia and Singapore.

WTO members are struggling to negotiate new trade rules while arguing over how the institution should make and enforce them. At the October 1 Trade Negotiations Committee meeting, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala pressed delegations to compromise, as divisions over agriculture, fisheries subsidies and development collided with disputes over consensus, plurilateral agreements and the capacity of smaller missions to participate.

Commerce is reportedly delaying aircraft-parts licensing for China, using access to U.S. aviation supplies as leverage in trade negotiations. Slower approvals and limits on quantities licensed raise delivery risks in a market that bought $15.9 billion in U.S. civilian aircraft, engines, equipment and parts in 2025.

Treasury issued determinations under Executive Order 13902 on October 1 targeting Iran’s automotive and rail sectors, alongside designations of industrial firms and foreign suppliers.