Posted by Clif Burns at 8:00 pm on June 25, 2008
Category: 
Back in 1997, the folks at Omega Engineering were very bad. They applied to the Bureau of Industry and Security (”BIS”) for a license to ship laboratory equipment to Pakistan. The license was denied. The appeal of the license denial was denied. They shipped the goods anyway with an intermediate stop in Newport, Germany. BIS was not amused. Omega agreed to a $187,000 fine and an order, entered in November 2003, forbidding it from being involved in any exports to Pakistan for five years.
Fast forward to 2008. Omega is no longer an export scofflaw. Indeed, Omega helps BIS obtain a criminal indictment against an individual who was trying to export U.S.-origin goods to Iran without a license. The reward? BIS agreed last week, in consideration of the “extraordinary cooperation” of Omega, which helped BIS obtain “crucial” evidence, to suspend the reminder of the export denial order which otherwise would have remained in effect until November 2008.
And who says you never get a second chance?
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Ass. Secretary’s Jackson actually order actually raises other questions about the original order: While he states that the waiver of the rest of the term of the denial order is justified by the “extraordinary cooperation” of Omega, in a single, less-than-a-sentence phrase, he dismisses a multitude of other grounds for relief as having “no merit” without ever mentioning what the other claimed grounds for relief were, or why they lacked merit, in flagrant violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, knowing that as long as Omega got off on “extraordinary cooperation”, they would have no reason to challenge denial of relief on all the other un-named grounds.
Well Mr. Jackson, don’t be so sure: You might just want to read some law for a change, like the entirety of 5 USC 552 for example, before you try burying those “meritless” arguments. You might want to prepare for spending some time in court.
Comment by Mike Deal — June 25, 2008 @ 9:34 pm