The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Export Enforcement published an updated version of Don’t Let This Happen to You!, a compendium of case examples highlighting BIS criminal and administrative enforcement efforts. The publication was last updated in March 2024.
PetroChina International America Inc. (PCIA) has entered into an agreement to pay a fine and monetary forfeiture totaling $14.5 million for violations of U.S. export law, including cargos misclassified and/or undervalued at the time of export and then entered into AES.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced a $538,000 settlement with Mondo TV, S.p.a. an Italian animation company for 18 apparent violations of the North Korea Sanctions Regulations. Between May 2019 and November 2021, Mondo remitted approximately $537,939 to a Government of North Korea-owned studio in payment for outsourced animation work. In doing so, Mondo caused U.S. financial institutions to process wire transfers that contained the blocked property interests of the Government of North Korea and to export financial services to North Korea.
Unlicensed exports of fruit flies genetically modified to produce a subunit of a controlled toxin drew Indiana University a penalty from the Commerce Department. As part of a settlement agreement, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an order imposing an administrative penalty on Indiana University (IU) related to exports by IU’s Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC).
A Washington State importer firm pleaded guilty to one felony count, was fined and received probation for evading source of origin declarations for Chinese-origin cabinets in violation of the Lacey Act. Tip the Scale LLC, of Tacoma, Washington, pleaded guilty and was sentenced for making false declarations regarding the species and harvest location of timber used in wooden cabinets and vanities. The firm agreed to appoint its current Sales Manger, Tran Dip as Chief Compliance Officer to implement a compliance plan.
A Canadian national and resident of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), pleaded guilty today to conspiring to send trade secrets that belonged to Tesla Motors. …
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has imposed a three-year denial order against a Portland, Oregon, package forwarding service prohibiting the firm from from participating in all exports under BIS jurisdiction from the United States. “If a forwarding company – with an entire business model based on exports – fails to implement an adequate compliance program even while subject to a suspended denial order, it should not be able to export items subject to the EAR from the United States,” said Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod.
Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption Richard Nephew will travel to Montenegro, Lithuania, and Albania June 16-21. Mr. Nephew will visit Podgorica, Montenegro to meet with government officials and civil society representatives. He will then travel to Vilnius, Lithuania on June 18-19, to the opening plenary of the International Anti-Corruption Conference.
A Turkish aviation operator was fined for ferrying passengers into and out of Russia on a US manufactured Gulfstream executive jet without the requisite export license. The Commerce Department (BIS) imposed a civil penalty of $285,000 against Sapphire Havacilik San Ltd. STI (Sapphire), an aviation company headquartered in Ankara, Türkiye, to resolve violations of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA). Although the Russian national passengers provided payment to Sapphire through third-party non-Russian charter brokers, such flights into Russia—which were arranged for the benefit of the Russian national or nationals on board—were nevertheless controlled by or under charter or lease by a Russian national. As such, the relevant flights did not fall within license exception Aircraft, Vessels, and Spacecraft (AVS) and violated Section 764.2(a) of the ECRA.
Two men have been indicted and 17 snow machines seized as law enforcement broke up a scheme to ship the equipment to Russia by way of Hong Kong. Sergey Nefedov, 40, of Anchorage, Alaska, and Mark Shumovich, 35, of Bellevue, Washington, were arrested June 11. Both are Russian nationals and naturalized US Citizens. According to the indictment, Nefedov and Shumovich told freight forwarders that the snowmachines would be going to Hong Kong, where they knew that a license was not required for export, thereby causing a freight forwarder to provide false information to U.S. authorities by concealing the end user and destination of the snowmachines.
Two Texas men, both of whom were convicted at trial, were sentenced today to 45 months in prison for attempting to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), conspiracy to violate IEEPA and conspiracy to commit money laundering based on their attempt to transact in sanctioned petroleum and launder the proceeds. The conspirators planned to start their scheme with a 500,000-barrel shipment of Iranian oil, but intended to increase the shipments to one or two million barrels per month for a year or more.
A dual U.S.-Russian citizen pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act by exporting firearm parts, components, and ammunition to Russia without the required authorization. Dimitry Timashev, 58, coordinated with an associate in Russia to send weapon parts from the United States to Russia. In exchange, the associate paid tuition for Timashev’s daughter and rent for an apartment in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
A federal grand jury charged a New York man in a three-count indictment alleging he illegally shipped eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, both protected wildlife species, from the United States to China for the global pet trade black market.
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed a civil penalty against Airbus DS Government Solutions Inc., a Texas-based satellite communications and networking systems company for shipping trade show materials to Kuwait certifying that the goods were not of Israeli origin and not manufactured by a company on the “Israeli Boycott Blacklist.” In November 2023 BIS announced a civil penalty of $44,750 against Forta LLC (Forta), a manufacturer of synthetic reinforcement fibers, for similar trade show infractions
Ericsson announced the conclusion of the work and term of the independent compliance Monitor appointed by the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) in June of 2020 in connection with Ericsson’s 2019 Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) to resolve historical violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The March 2023 Plea Agreement with the DOJ that followed non-criminal breaches of the DPA has also expired as of June 2.
A New Jersey-based airline exceutive pled guilty to participating in a money laundering conspiracy involving proceeds of heathcare fraud channeled through his employer's bank account.
An indictment was unsealed in the Central District of California May 16 charging two Chinese nationals alleging they played leading roles in a scheme to launder proceeds from cryptocurrency investment scams. According to court documents, the conspirators allegedly managed an international syndicate that laundered proceeds of cryptocurrency investment scams, which are also known as “pig butchering.”
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated three individuals for their activities associated with the malicious botnet tied to the residential proxy service known as 911 S5. …
Two Florida men have pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy for their roles in a scheme to fraudulently procure deeply discounted products from Massachusetts biochemical company Sigma-Aldrich Inc., doing business as MilliporeSigma, and export them to China using falsified export documents. As a result of MilliporeSigma’s timely self-disclosure and extraordinary cooperation, MilliporeSigma will not be charged, despite the criminal wrongdoing committed by a MilliporeSigma employee.
The Justice Department announced a series of coordinated actions to disrupt the illicit revenue generation efforts North Korean information Technology workers, while the State Department announced a $5 million reward to help shut down the schemes.
