3 shippers settle charges of U.S. export control violations

3 shippers settle charges of U.S. export control violations    The U.S. Commerce Department said Metric Equipment Sales of Hayward, Calif., has agreed to settle criminal and civil charges that it illegally exported oscilloscopes from the United States to Israel.
   On March 21, Metric pled guilty to one felony count of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by exporting an oscilloscope to Israel without a license. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) controls the export of these devices for nuclear nonproliferation and antiterrorism purposes. Metric was sentenced to pay a criminal fine of $50,000, placed on three years probation and ordered to serve 250 hours of community service.
   In a related administrative case, Metric agreed to pay BIS a $150,000 civil penalty, and to a suspended five year denial of its export privileges under the Export Administration Regulations. Metric also will perform an audit of its internal export compliance program and forward the results to BIS’s Office of Export Enforcement. BIS suspended the five-year denial of export privileges provide that Metric commits no more violations.
   BIS charged that during January-December 2001, Metric committed 31 violations of the Export Administration Regulations. BIS alleged that Metric committed 10 violations by exporting items without the required licenses, 10 violations by transferring items with the knowledge that a violation of the Export Administration Regulations, and 11 violations by making false statements on shipper’s export declarations.
   In another case, Medi-Link International in the United Kingdom agreed to pay a $17,500 administrative penalty to settle charges that it failed to comply with reporting and record keeping requirements in violation of the Export Administration Regulations.
   BIS charged that between June 15, 1999, and Aug. 15, 2002, Medi-Link failed to maintain the required paperwork for seven transactions subject to the regulations. The Export Administration Regulations require that certain export control records be kept for a period of five years.
   Teledyne Energy Systems of Hunt Valley, Md., agreed to pay a $16,500 civil penalty to settle charges that it exported power plant technical data to an organization in India in violation of the Export Administration Regulations.
   BIS charged that on three occasions in 1999 and 2000, Teledyne illegally exported technical information on proposed power plants from United States to Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. in New Delhi without the required licenses. At the time of the export, the Indian company was the BIS’s Entity List, which is a compilation of end users who pose a risk of diverting technology to weapons programs.
   BIS said Teledyne voluntarily self-disclosed the violations and cooperated fully in the investigation.