French Corporation Sentenced to $500,000 Criminal Fine and Two Years Probation for Role in Conspiracy to Export Cryogenic Pumps to Iran
In yet another criminal export control case, Cryostar SAS, a company based in in Hesingue, France that specialized in the design and manufacturing of cryogenic equipment, was sentenced last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to pay a criminal fine of $500,000 and two years of corporate probation in connection with its role in a conspiracy with the U.S. subsidiary of Japan-based Ebara Corporation and another French company to export cryogenic submersible pumps from the U.S. to Iran in 2003.
The press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's office indicated that:
The conspirators developed a plan to conceal the export of cryogenic pumps to Iran, under which Ebara would sell and export the pumps to CRYOSTAR in France, which would then resell the pumps to TN, with the ultimate and intended destination being Iran. The conspirators set forth the plan on a “matrix,” which they used as a roadmap, including various procedures to be followed by each company to protect their conduct from detection by United States law enforcement . . . .Ebara International Corp. paid a $121,000 civil penalty imposed BIS and a $6.3 million criminal penalty in 2004 for its role in the illegal sales and exports of pumps to Iran. In addition, Ebara paid a civil penalty of $44,000 to OFAC for facilitating trade with an Iranian entity, attempting to export goods to Iran and "attempted evasion of the applicable regulations."
Labels: BIS, Export Controls, Sanctions; Iran
|posted by Douglas N. Jacobson| Permalink 
