Stoelting Co. and Company President Receive Criminal Sentence for Exports of Polygraph Machines to China

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that the Stoelting Co. of Wood Dale, Illinois, and its president, LaVern Miller, were sentenced in connection with criminal violations of the Export Administration Act for illegally exporting polygraph machines to the People's Republic of China (PRC).

BIS alleged that between January 1998 and February 1999, Stoelting, under Miller's direction, knowingly exported and attempted to export polygraph equipment to the PRC without the required export licenses. Miller was sentenced to two and half years probation, including six months of electronically monitored home confinement, 500 hours community service and a criminal fine equivalent to the costs of probation and electronic monitoring, estimated to be $18,000. The Stoelting Company was sentenced to two and a half years corporate probation and a $20,000 criminal fine.

In June 2004, Stoelting and Miller entered into settlement agreements with BIS that called for a $44,000 civil penalty and a five-year denial of export privileges in connection with this case.

Under U.S. law, an export license is required to export polygraph equipment to the PRC and many other countries