Firm fined $2 million for B747 exports to Iran

Firm fined $2 million for B747 exports to Iran    Balli Aviation Ltd., a subsidiary of the U.K.-based Balli Group PLC, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday to pay a $2 million fine and to serve a five-year corporate period of probation after pleading guilty on Feb. 5 to a two-count criminal information in connection to its illegal export of commercial Boeing 747 planes from the United States to Iran.
   The $2 million combined with a related $15 million civil settlement is one of the largest fines for a U.S. export violation in the history of the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security.
   According to count one of the criminal information filed with the court, from October 2007 to July 2008, Balli Aviation conspired to export three B747s from the United States to Iran without obtaining the required export licenses from BIS or authorizations from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Furthermore, Balli Aviation entered into lease arrangements that allowed an Iranian airline to use the U.S.-origin planes for flights in and out of Iran.
   Count two of the criminal information said Balli Aviation violated a Temporary Denial Order issued by BIS on March 17, 2008, that prohibited the company from conducting any transaction involving an item subject to the Export Administration Regulations. Balli violated the order by carrying on negotiations with others concerning buying, receiving, using, selling and delivering U.S.-origin planes from March 2008 to August 2008, the Justice Department said.