Uni-Arab, BEF Corp. pay fines to settle U.S. export violations

Uni-Arab, BEF Corp. pay fines to settle U.S. export violations The U.S. Commerce Department said Uni-Arab Engineering and Oil Field Services and its managing director Nureddin S. Sehweil, and assistant managing director Jaime Radi Mustafa, have paid civil penalties totaling $170,000 to settle alleged export control violations.
   The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) charged Uni-Arab, based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with nine violations, while Sehweil was charged with two violations and Mustafa with six violations. The violations involved the re-export of oil field chemical testing equipment to Libya between October 2002 and July 2003 on behalf of Yaudat Mustafa Talyi of Slidell, La., who was under a temporary denial order by U.S. export authorities.
   BIS, along with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sentenced Allentown, Pa.-based BEF Corp. to five years probation and ordered the company to pay civil and criminal penalties for illegally exporting photo lab equipment to Iran .The shipments were made between 2001 and 2002. BEF pleaded guilty to the charges.
   As a result of the guilty plea, BEF was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $350,000 and to criminally forfeit an additional $150,000 to ICE. In a related administrative case, BEF agreed to pay civil fines of $39,000 to BIS to settle charges that it committed four violations of the U.S. export control rules in connection with the illegal export to Iran. In addition, BEF paid the Treasury Department $11,000 to settle civil charges that it violated the Iranian Transactions Regulations. Finally, BEF was ordered to pay a special assessment of $5,600 to the court.