August 2008 Volume 22, Number 8
Features
Court Ruling Renews Focus on "Specially Designed"
With final ruling in FMI court case, BIS needs to address lack of definition of "specially designed" in CCL. William Root offers several options.
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Focus on Enforcement
BIS Settles Charge with Select Engineering and Salesman on Export to Iran
Select Engineering, Inc., of Fitchberg, Mass., and its marketing manager, David Rainville, have reached separate settlement agreements with the...
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Indonesian Man Sentenced to Jail for Conspiracy to Export USML Rifle Scopes
A federal judge July 28, 2008, sentenced Doli Sharief Pulungan, an Indonesian citizen, to four years in prison for conspiracy to export 100 Leupold...
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Boeing Fined $3 Million for Failing to Comply with TAA and MLA Conditions
For the fifth time in 10 years, Boeing has had to sign a consent decree with State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) to settle charges...
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Advanced Orientation Systems Agrees to Settlement with BIS for Export to Mayrow General
Linden, New Jersey-based Advanced Orientation Systems (AOS) has entered into a settlement agreement with the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)...
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ICE Sting Leads to Jail for Ground Crew Member Who Smuggled Items on Planes
Chicago U.S. District Court Judge Joan Gottschall sentenced Riad Skaff to two years in jail and fined him $100 on July 10, 2008, for smuggling...
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Air Shunt Pays $250,000 Fine For False Statement on SED but Avoids ITAR Charges
The government's arsenal of sanctions for export control violations includes penalties that go beyond those provided in export control and trade...
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Dual-Citizen Pleads Not Guilty to Exporting Chemical Processing Software to Iran
Ali Amirnazmi, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, pled not guilty in Philadelphia U.S. District Court July 25, 2008, to a 15-count indictment charging...
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Government Settles for Stolen Property Transfer Plea after Mistrial in Export to Iran Case
In a case that started out with sensational charges about the export of nuclear software to Iran, the government June 24, 2008, accepted a plea...
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Maryland Firm Pays $1.2 Million Fine to Settle OFAC Charges of Violating Cuban Assets Sanctions
In one of the largest fines ever imposed for a violation of U.S. trade sanctions on Cuba, Minxia Non-Ferrous Metals, Inc., of Colombia, Md., has...
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Software Firm Charged with Training Customer to Aid Oil Exploration off Cuban Waters
Platte River Associates of Boulder, Colo., is negotiating a settlement with the Denver U.S. Attorney's office to settle a criminal information that...
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Enforcement Insights by Mark Menefee
Nuevo Terrorismo
By Mark D. Menefee*
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." - Mark Twain, 1894 What country has...
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Regulatory Briefs
DDTC Proposeds Three-Tier Structure for New Export Licensing, Registration Fees
As promised to Congress and industry advisors, State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) in the July 28, 2008, Federal Register proposed...
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DFARS Rule Change Will Make Export Compliance Condition for Contracts
The Department of Defense (DoD) went back to the drawing board in the July 21, 2008, Federal Register with a new interim final rule to impose...
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Additional Requirements Proposed for Civil Nuclear Sites under IAEA Agreement
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) proposed new requirements in the July 25, 2008, Federal Register for nuclear energy sites in the U.S....
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BIS Issues Final Rule to Implement Changes Adopted by Australia Group Regime
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a final rule in the July 8, 2008, Federal Register to amend the Commerce Control List (CCL) to...
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Policy Briefs
ITAR Enforcement Rising in Every Category, Says DDTC Compliance Chief Trimble
The enforcement efforts of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) and federal law enforcement agencies are producing an increasing...
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Study Finds Targeted Sanctions Work Better Than Broader Controls
A studied of more than 200 U.S. trade sanctions imposed since World War I found sanctions worked just 34 percent of the time in achieving their...
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Solicitor General Argues Against Supreme Court Review of FCPA Conviction
The Solicitor General of the United States filed a brief with the Supreme Court on July 25, 2008, opposing a petition that asked the High Court to...
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OFAC Will License Transfers of Claims for Payments from Cuba under Settlements
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) issued a notice Aug. 1, 2008, to remind the public that the sale or purchase of claims against...
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Pending Defense Trade Treaties with UK, Australia Aren't FTAs, Officials Say
U.S. defense exporters should not expect pending defense cooperation treaties with the United Kingdom and Australia to open free trade in...
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Lawyers Can Get Blocked Funds for Reimbursement of Legal Fees, OFAC Announces
Lawyers don't have to worry anymore about getting paid by clients whose funds are subject to blocking actions by the Office of Foreign Assets...
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Good Relations with DDTC Depend on Commitment to Compliance, Executives Advise
Like pre-marriage counseling, a group of industry export compliance experts had a lot of advice to offer at a July 23, 2008, conference on how to...
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Anti-Bribery Group TRACE Gets Justice OK for Payments To Chinese Journalists
The Justice Department July 11, 2008, advised TRACE International, Inc., the anti-bribery monitoring organization, that it would not prosecute the...
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Inside BIS
BIS Musical Chairs Shifts Top Ranks of Agency and Swaps Kritzer and Albanese
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Under Secretary Mario Mancuso is putting his personal mark on the agency with a series of job appointments...
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Interagency Objections Tie Up BIS Plans for Intra-Company Transfer License Proposal
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) won't be proposing a new Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) License Exception as soon as it planned because of...
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First Indian Firms File Applications with BIS for VEU Authorizations
A "handful" of "top quality" Indian companies have filed applications with the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for the first time to be...
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BIS to Study Impact of Counterfeit Electronic Parts on Defense Readiness
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has launched a study of the impact that counterfeit electronics might be having on the U.S. supply chain...
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