EXPORT VIOLATIONS DRAW $1 MILLION IN FINES

EXPORT VIOLATIONS DRAW $1 MILLION IN FINES    Nearly $1 million in criminal and administrative fines have been imposed against a Houston company, BS&B Process Systems Inc., and its London-based affiliate for illegally exporting oil field processing equipment to Iran.
   The U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration imposed a $86,000 civil penalty against BS&B Process Systems and a $32,000 civil penalty against its London affiliate, Black, Sivalls & Bryson (U.K.) Ltd., as part of the global settlement. BS&B also had its export privileges denied for three years, all of which was suspended. Black, Sivalls and Bryson's export privileges were also denied for three years, but all but one year was suspended. Both suspensions are conditioned on the companies not committing any violations during the suspension period.
   The U.S. District Court for the northern district of Oklahoma last week imposed a criminal penalty of $414,000 against BS&B and a $448,000 penalty against Black, Sivalls and Bryson.
   The global settlement is the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Export Administration's Dallas field office, the Criminal Investigations Division of the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Customs Service, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
   In a separate matter, the Commerce Department imposed a $10,000 civil penalty and a five-year denial of export privileges on Eli Cohen of Haifa, Israel, pursuant to a settlement agreement. The BXA had alleged that Cohen had concealed an illegal transfer of an infrared camera from BXA agents.
   Cohen allegedly provided false and misleading information to special agents of BXA's Office of Export Enforcement concerning the camera's location when the agents sought to verify its end-use in Israel. The camera was shipped to Israel under a BXA export license that authorized its use only by the company named on the license, but was then illegally transferred. BXA controls the export of this type of camera for national security reasons because of its potential application in military surveillance.