Dec
22

Arrest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Posted by Clif Burns at 1:46 pm on December 22, 2006
Category: Criminal Penalties

J. Edgar ClausAs a special holiday treat for readers of ExportLawBlog, we are offering this heartwarming story which we found, oddly enough, tucked away in the GAO’s recent report on export law enforcement.

Once upon a time:

FBI and OEE agents disagreed as to whether certain dual-use items planned for export warranted an investigation

So, they did what any sensible law enforcement agents would do — they asked the Department of Commerce whether a license was required.

Commerce determined that the item did not require a license.

That should have been the end of the story, but that story would be too short to be a holiday gift to our readers. So, of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.

FBI asked for an opinion from the National Security Agency, which deemed the item high risk for national security.

The who? The NSA? When did they get invited to the export licensing party? Apparently soon enough to cause a lot of bad stuff to go down.

Without coordinating with OEE and ICE, FBI pursued the investigation, arrested the exporter, and held the shipment of items, valued at $500,000.

The FBI didn’t just visit the exporter and ask him questions about the export. No, the FBI arrested him. They snatched him from his warehouse, threw him in jail, took his merchandise, and then did high fives all around. Until . . .

Ultimately, criminal charges were not pursued because the items did not require a license.

Duh. Do you think they even apologized?

Anyway, ExportLawBlog wishes all of its readers the best for a safe and happy holiday season. Posting around here will be sporadic until right after the New Year so that we can catch up on consuming a few holiday spirits.

Permalink

6 Comments »

  • Thanks for bringing this GAO report to the light of day. Its another example of how the GAO has become politicized. The report clearly tries to suck up to anti-export, pro-sanctions proclivities of Chairman Hyde. I find it interesting that GAO did not speak with anyone in the private sector who deals with the enforcement agencies. Asking ICE, OEE,CBP, DoJ and FBI to evaluate themselves is useful, but its never going to give them an objective assessment. Hopefully, the new majority in the 110th Congress will not be deceived by this GAO Report.

    Comment by Mike Deal — December 23, 2006 @ 10:08 am

  • After some reflection upon reading and rereading this GAO report, it occurs to me that should any other Boeing read this report, they may be mystified as to why Boeing agreed to a huge fine levied by DDTC under its “tranparency doctrine”, when DDTC doesn’t have an effective civil penalty procedure AND the transactions were clearly legal as per section 17 of the EAA. My point is not about one questionable decision. My point is that the Federal export control agencies routinely violate the laws under which they assert the right to sanction real Americans; but, even the largest exporters won’t take them to task and make the Yankee bastards follow the law. Until exporters develop a spine and are willing to fight, we can expect export enforcement apparatus to run roughshod over Americans, which will make the boys at the trade ministry in Beijing only too happy.

    Comment by Mike Deal — December 28, 2006 @ 12:36 pm

  • Pray tell, what is a “real American?”

    Comment by mous, anony — December 28, 2006 @ 2:59 pm

  • A “real American” is a US person whose first and undivided loyalty is to the United States and their fellow Americans, instead of to other ethnic, religious or national groups. This would exclude the Cuban colonists in Occupied Florida and other ingrate expatriate or ethnic groups who consider their feuds with their enemies back home to be more important than the livelihoods of the Americans who gave them a refuge in the first place, plus their corrupt, traitorous lackeys at OFAC.

    Comment by Mike Deal — December 29, 2006 @ 7:17 pm

  • Hey, Mike. I agree with your definition of a “real American” in that I am a US person and I have proudly sworn my unswerving loyalty and allegiance to the United States as a grateful immigrant and I have devoted my lifetime to public service as a career military officer and as a federal civil servant. My employment at OFAC, however, does not make me “traitorous” or a “lackey” for the “Cuban colonists”. In fact, I have the utmost respect and admiration for my colleagues here at OFAC. Dedicated professionals come to my mind to describe them.

    Comment by Lee Miller — February 13, 2007 @ 10:12 am

  • For the record, I agree with Lee. Although I have been critical of unilateral sanctions programs and of certain aspects by which OFAC implements them, I do not believe that the folks at OFAC are “traitorous” or are “lackeys” for Cubans.

    Comment by Clif Burns — February 13, 2007 @ 10:20 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

Comments are moderated, so your comment will not immediately appear, but will appear later after I've approved it. Although I will never disclose your email address to anyone, comments with fake or non-functioning email addresses are not approved. And, of course, spam comments with links to pornography and pharmaceutical sites aren't approved either.