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 July 2024.
Telefónica Venezolana C.A. a Venezuela-based subsidiary of Telefónica S.A. a publicly traded global telecommunications operator based in Spain, will pay over $85.2 million to resolve an investigation by the Justice Department into a scheme to bribe government officials in Venezuela to receive preferential access to U.S. dollars in a currency auction. Telefónica Venezolana entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) in connection with a criminal information filed today in the Southern District of New York charging the company with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
A Turkish National was arrested for his involvement in a complex scheme to violate and evade U.S. sanctions related to petroleum products from Venezuela and Iran.. The scheme included obfuscating the identities of tankers moving the oil by re-naming and re-flagging vessels, covering vessel names with paint or blankets, and turning off the electronics that track vessels’ locations for the safety of ships and their crews
A Virginia freight forwarding firm and two executives have been charged with operating a technology transshipment service for Russian customers, routing shipments through Turkie, Finland and Kazakhstan to evade export controls. “This company allegedly used not one, not two, but three different schemes to illegally transship sensitive American technology to Russia,” said Assistant Secretary for the Department of Commerce Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Matthew S. Axelrod
A federal grand jury in Boston indicted a citizen of the People’s Republic of China for allegedly stealing trade secrets from his employer, a global investment management firm, while working in Massachusetts in 2021. Xiao Zhang, 33, of Shanghai, China, was indicted on one count of theft of trade secrets. Zhang currently remains at large overseas.
A wholesale clothing importer located in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles and two of its executives have been found guilty by a jury of avoiding the payment of more than $8 million in customs duties on imported clothing, and of running a scheme in which the company laundered money and failed to report on tax returns more than $17 million derived from cash transactions, the Justice Department announced October 30th..
A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering network that sought to acquire sensitive dual-use electronics for Russian military and intelligence services.
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed a civil penalty of $500,000 against GlobalFoundries U.S. Inc., a semiconductor wafer manufacturing company headquartered in Malta, New York, and its subsidiary, GlobalFoundries U.S. 2 LLC (collectively, “GlobalFoundries”). The penalty relates to GlobalFoundries’ shipments of semiconductor wafers valued at approximately $17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor (SJS), a company on the BIS Entity List, without the requisite license or other authorization from BIS.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has publicly condemned the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent settlement with TD Bank, alleging that the $3 billion penalty agreement enables the bank to evade full accountability for its role in money-laundering activities. In a strongly worded letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Warren criticized the DOJ for structuring the settlement in a way that, she argues, shields both the bank and its executives from the full extent of legal consequences.
A sanctioned fugitive Venezuelan television news network owner has been charged for his role in a $1.2 billion scheme to launder funds corruptly obtained from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), in exchange for hundreds of millions in bribe payments to Venezuelan officials.
Reuters reports that Turkey's Halkbank has been found not to be immune from charges it helped Iran evade American sanctions. The 2nd Circuit court rejected the state-owned lender's argument that it deserved immunity.
The Pennsylvania State University located in University Park, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $1,250,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to comply with cybersecurity requirements in fifteen contracts or subcontracts involving the Department of Defense (DoD) or National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The settlement in this case provides for the whistleblower, the former chief information officer for Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, to receive a $250,000 share of the settlement amount
A Chinese national pleaded guilty October 17 to charges associated with the shipment of semiconductor manufacturing equipment without the required export license. In pleading guilty, Lin Chen, 65, admitted to procuring a wafer cutting machine on behalf of an entity designated on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List.
A middle eastern sales executive for a US mining equipment company was found guilty of participating in a ruse to ship equipment to Iran while representing to his employer the destination was Iraq. Brian Assi conspired with individuals in Tehran, Iran, to export U.S.-made heavy machinery indirectly to Iran without first obtaining the required licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General (PADAG) Marshall Miller addressed the New York City Bar Compliance Institute, delivering a comprehensive overview of the Department of Justice’s …
A Florida woman was sentenced today to 15 months in prison for her role in a scheme to sell Turkish - origin components to the Department of Defense, misrepresenting the country of origin and manufacturing specifications. The components were intended for use in the Navy Nimitz and Ford Class Aircraft Carriers, Navy Submarines, Marine Corps Armored Vehicles, and Army M-60 Series Tank and Abrahams Battle Tanks, among other weapons systems.
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 26 entities to the Entity List, while giving relief to one Canadian firm for substantive reforms to its business practices. Sandvine Incorporated, an entity listed under the destinations of Canada, India, Japan, Malaysia, Sweden, and the UAE, has been removed following significant reforms to address and prevent the misuse of its technology in ways that undermine democracy and abuse human rights
In a case illustrating the long arm of US sanctions enforcement, Hanoi - based Vietnam Beverage Company Limited has agreed to pay $860,000 on behalf of two of its subsidiaries for apparent violations of OFAC sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Thai-controlled brewer settled potential fines of nearly $16 million related to $1.4 million of shopments to North Korea.
Compliance-challenged defense contracting giant RTX has agreed to pay nearly $1 billion to settle charges of government contract fraud, foreign bribery, and export control violations. The settlement comes on the heels of a $200 million settlement in August with the State Department [12717] for a raft of export control violations.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Moog Inc., a New York-based global manufacturer of motion controls systems for aerospace, defense, industrial and medical markets, agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.1 million to resolve the SEC’s charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising out of bribes paid by its wholly owned Indian subsidiary, Moog Motion Controls Private Limited .