The Bureau of Industry and Security has imposed a $540,000 penalty against an individual to settle charges that he and his company prepared and provided to a freight forwarder invoices that vastly understated the value of fiber switches and fiber accessories being exported to Russia. These items are used in telecommunications networking equipment and their export is controlled under ECCNs 5A002, 5D002, and 5A991 on national security, encryption, and/or anti-terrorism grounds.
The actions of this individual and his company caused the forwarder to file electronic export information containing false value information in the Automated Export System. In addition, on one occasion a false invoice indicated a value under $2,500 and thus did not appear to trigger the EEI filing requirement.
BIS states that $480,000 of the penalty, and a denial of export privileges, will be suspended for two years and then waived provided the individual does not commit any additional export violations during that time.
For more information on how to avoid export penalties, please contact Kristine Pirnia.
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