Export Enforcement Actions in 2022

The Bureau of Industry and Security recently provided an overview of its export enforcement efforts in 2022.

Perhaps most notably, BIS announced in July a number of measures aimed at enhancing export enforcement measures and promoting compliance efforts by companies. These include making charging letters public upon filing with an administrative law judge, eliminating “no admit, no deny” settlements, raising penalty amounts for the most serious violations, implementing non-monetary resolutions for cases without serious national security harm, and revising the voluntary self-disclosure process to fast-track most resolutions while focusing on those of most serious potential harm to national security.

Separately, BIS announced a new two-step policy that moves parties onto the Unverified List, and then to the Entity List, when a host government’s sustained non-cooperation prevents the timely scheduling of end-use checks.

BIS also strengthened its enforcement of anti-boycott provisions by reordering penalty tiers in the regulations, increasing penalty amounts, eliminating “no admit, no deny” settlements, and announcing an enhanced focus on foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies.

Other measures included (1) the first-ever joint alert between BIS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, focusing on Russia sanctions evasion indicators and including a special suspicious activity report code, (2) updating, reorganizing, and publishing a compendium of fact patterns that resulted in enforcement actions, (3) announcing a partnership with the Canada Border Services Agency that for the first time will embed a BIS export enforcement analyst with CBSA, and (4) establishing new export control officer positions in Finland and Taiwan.

For more information on how to ensure your company is in compliance with export rules, please contact attorney Kristine Pirnia at (202) 730-4964 or via email.