BIS Releases New Edition of “Don’t Let This Happen to You” | Customs & International Trade Law Blog

The Division of Commerce’s Bureau of Business and Safety (BIS) revealed an up to date model of Don’t Let This Occur to You!, an inventory of case examples highlighting BIS enforcement efforts together with felony circumstances.

Case highlights:

The publication highlights over 100 circumstances masking numerous violations of export management legal guidelines.

Navy Controls

The proprietor of BQ Tree Consulting in Jacksonville, Florida, together with the President and Supervisor of the corporate have been indicted for conspiring to illegally export military-grade fight rubber raiding craft (CCRC) to China.

The scheme concerned offering a U.S. firm with false end-use and end-user data for a entrance firm in Hong Kong, which was used to finish the transaction finally destined for China. The intention was to reverse engineer the CRRC and engines to mass produce them for the Chinese language Folks’s Liberation Military (PLA) Navy.

The corporate proprietor was sentenced to 16 months in jail, two years of supervised launch, necessary psychological well being screening, and a $200 particular evaluation. The corporate President was sentenced to 42 months confinement, three years of probation, a $50,000 felony effective, and a $200 particular evaluation. The corporate supervisor was sentenced to 17 months in jail, one yr of supervised launch pending deportation, a prohibition on employment with any firm that offers with the army, and a $100 particular evaluation.

Nationwide Safety Controls

GlobalFoundries U.S. Inc., a semiconductor wafer manufacturing firm headquartered in Malta New York violated the Export Administration Laws (EAR) by sending 74 shipments of semiconductor wafers, valued at roughly $17.1 million, to SJ Semiconductor (SJS), an organization on the BIS Entity Record, with no license from BIS.

GlobalFoundries voluntarily disclosed the violations and cooperated absolutely with the investigation, which resulted in a discount within the penalty.

On November 1, 2024, GlobalFoundries agreed to a $500,000 civil penalty.

WMD Controls

Chinese language nationwide Zaosong Zheng carried out cancer-cell analysis at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Middle in Boston. Zheng stole vials of organic analysis and tried to take them out of america aboard a flight to China.

Zheng was arrested at Logan Worldwide Airport in Boston. Zheng pled responsible to creating false, fictitious or fraudulent statements in connection together with his theft of 19 vials and was sentenced to time served in jail, three years of supervised launch, a $100 particular evaluation, and removing from america.

Unlicensed Exports

USGoBuy, LLC of Portland, Oregon entered right into a settlement settlement with BIS to resolve two alleged violations of the EAR involving unlicensed exports of riflescopes to China and the UAE. As a part of the settlement settlement, USGoBuy, LLC agreed to a three-year suspended denial order, which BIS may activate if the corporate failed to fulfill the phrases of the settlement settlement or dedicated further violations.

A subsequent audit recognized important continued deficiencies in USGoBuy, LLC’s export compliance program and revealed new violations of the EAR together with 176 failures to make Digital Export Data (EEI) filings and failures to keep up satisfactory information.

BIS activated the beforehand agreed upon suspended penalty – a three-year denial order.

Takeaways

Within the publication, BIS famous that export controls have by no means been extra vital to the U.S.’s safety pursuits and that Export Enforcement has taken decisive motion to prioritize its enforcement efforts.

BIS additionally urged firms to spend money on compliance upfront to keep away from turning into one of many highlighted case research.

Exporters ought to have a sturdy compliance program in place not solely to stop violations of the EAR however to detect them if and after they do happen.

Diaz Commerce Regulation can present help with a variety of EAR-related issues together with growing a compliance plan, export compliance coaching, transaction vetting, voluntary self-disclosures, and extra.

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