California shipper pays $700,000 fine for export violations

California shipper pays $700,000 fine for export violations    Wilden Pump and Engineering Co. of Grand Terrace, Calif., will pay a $700,000 civil penalty to the Commerce Department to settle charges that it violated export control regulations.
   The charges stem from unauthorized exports of diaphragm pumps from the United States to Iran, Israel, China, Syria and the United Arab Emirates without the required Commerce Department export licenses.
   The department’s Bureau of Industry and Security charged that between 2000 and 2003 Wilden committed 71 violations of the Export Administration Regulations. Specifically, BIS found that the company committed 26 violations by exporting diaphragm pumps without required licenses. In connection with 22 of the exports, Wilden violated the regulations by transferring diaphragm pumps with knowledge that violations to the regulations would occur. The agency also charged that Wilden committed 23 violations of the Export Administration Regulations by making false statements on export control documents.
   “The size of the penalty assessed to Wilden is due to the significant number of violations, many of them with knowledge that the shipments were destined to an embargoed country,” BIS said in a June 3 statement.
   “The majority of the pumps that were exported are controlled for export and re-export due to concerns that they could be used in chemical and biological weapons proliferation,” the agency added.
   Wilden also agreed to be subject to a three-year denial of export privileges for items on the Commerce Department’s Commerce Control List. The denial will be suspended for two years provided that Wilden does not commit any violations of the export control regulations during the suspension period.