The one thing you need to know about export violations is this: Yes, it can happen to you.
Many businesses think that it can’t, or won’t, be something that will affect them.The truth of the matter is that confidence is no replacement for solid and robust compliance systems and processes.
Ignorance won’t be a justification for being out of date with the latest regulations and the regulatory agencies don’t care if you’re having a bad day and forget to complete the correct paperwork.
Throughout our website, you’ll see regular references to the penalties that businesses face for compliance failures. This isn’t a shock tactic or a way of scaring people into using our services, it is merely our commitment to ensuring that anyone who is interested in exporting, or currently exports, from the U.S., is aware of the risks they take if they do not abide by the regulations.
Here we look at two recent examples of businesses who have been penalized for failure to comply with the regulations and what it meant for them:
57 Month prison sentence for conspiring to export specialty metals without a license
A 57-month prison sentence was given to Erdal Kuyumcu following a guilty plea related to the attempted export of specialty metals from the U.S. to Iran. The metals, which have military and nuclear applications, were due to be sent without a license to Turkey before being shipped retransferred to Iran.
Kuyumcu also conspired to obtain 1000 pounds of the metals from U.S. suppliers as part of the compliance failure. He attempted to use coded language to hide the true recipient of the intended shipments so as to avoid incrimination.
Ahead of the sentencing a 20-year prison sentence and $1 million fine were potential outcomes. The harsh penalties reflect the severity of the crime as the metals are regulated by the U.S. Department of Commerce to combat nuclear proliferation and terrorism. Read the full article here.
Three years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a five-year export ban
Ambar Esthela Morales received a three-year prison sentence on 23 March 2016 for ‘knowingly and willingly attempting to export’ nearly 8000 rounds of ammunition to Mexico without the appropriate U.S. Department of State licenses.
Morales failed to obtain an export license for the ammunition which is classified under Category I of the United States Munition List.
As a result of this violation and in addition to the penalties above, the Bureau of Industry and Security revoked Morales’ export privileges for a period of 5 years and revoked all licenses issued to Morales. Read the full article here.
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Compliance program failures can and do happen. It could be that the compliance documentation your staff refer to is out of date, you make a genuine error and only find out about it later, or the person who usually handles your export documentation is off sick and it falls to someone who isn’t experienced. Regardless of the situation, the examples above demonstrate the severity of compliance failures.
At Trade Consulting Services we help businesses to export with confidence. If you are about to start exporting, or are a current exporter but have questions about your compliance, and want peace of mind for your operations, speak to us today. We can handle individual aspects of your export program, the whole process, or provide training to give you and your staff the tools you need to manage it internally.
View Our Services for more information or call us at 214-810-0204.
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