Taiwan, Texas-affiliates pay U.S. export penalties

Taiwan, Texas-affiliates pay U.S. export penalties    The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said Tuesday that Foxsemicon Integrated Technologies Inc. (FITI) of Taiwan agreed to pay a $250,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that it committed 31 violations of the Export Administration Regulations for unlicensed exports of pressure transducers from the United States to China.
   In a related case, FITI subsidiary Foxsemicon LLC in San Jose, Calif., paid a $160,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that it “aided and abetted” FITI’s violations. FITI designs and manufactures components and systems used to make semiconductor wafers and flat-panel screens.
   BIS alleged FITI shipped the transducers to China between August 2005 and May 2006. Transducers may be used as spare parts to larger systems controlled for nuclear non-proliferations reasons to China.
   The agency said at the time the exports were made, FITI knew Commerce Department licenses were required for the parts, yet the company made no attempt to apply for them. FITI also allegedly made false statement on export documents, aided by Foxsemicon LLC, by incorrectly stating that no license was required for the exports.
   “Exporters must heed the advice of their suppliers when told that products require an export license,” said Kevin Delli-Colli, the Commerce Department’s acting assistant secretary for export enforcement, in a statement. “Companies involved in systems integration bear the burden of ensuring that license requirements regarding parts and components are met before exporting to foreign customers.”
   According to the agency, both FITI and Foxsemicon LLC voluntarily disclosed the violations and cooperated with the investigation. BIS agreed to suspend $160,000 of FITI’s fine provided that no additional violations occur in the next year.
   BIS also announced that five overseas subsidiaries of Thermon Manufacturing Co., based in San Marcos, Texas, agreed to pay a total of $176,000 in combined civil penalties to settle charges that they participated in unlicensed exports and re-exports of heat tracing equipment to Iran, Syria, Libya and listed entities in India.
   The agency said 33 violations occurred from October 2002 to June 2006 by the five subsidiaries: Thermon Europe B.V., Thermon Far East Ltd., Thermon Heat Tracers Pvt. Ltd. in India, Thermon Korea Ltd., and Thermon (U.K.) Ltd. The equipment was manufactured and shipped from Thermon in the United States without the required license, and for the shipments to Iran, without a license from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
   BIS said the Thermon subsidiaries did not inform Thermon Manufacturing of the ultimate destinations for the items and had been told by Thermon Manufacturing in February 2005 that “products manufactured by Thermon U.S. may not be sold to countries on the U.S. trade sanctions list,” including specifically Iran, Syria and Libya. The agency alleged that the affiliates acted with knowledge of those violations involving shipments to sanctioned countries that occurred after this warning.
   BIS said Thermon Manufacturing voluntarily disclosed the violations.