Archive for the ‘SEC’ Category


May

26

SEC To TSRA: Drop Dead!


Posted by at 10:05 pm on May 26, 2011
Category: SanctionsSEC

UPS TruckYou may never have heard of the SEC’s Office of Global Security Risk and probably have no idea what they do. Well, although I know what they are supposed to do, I have always wondered what the people at that office do during the work day.

Now we know. They surf websites looking for sanctioned countries, like Syria and Sudan, in drop down address lists on the websites of U.S. companies. Allegedly this is to advise U.S. investors about publicly-traded companies that supposedly jeopardize their stockholders’ investments by dealing with sanctioned countries.

After a heavy day of web surfing the Office of Global Security Risk fired off this missive to UPS in respect to a price table it found on the UPS site.

We also note an Air Freight peak season surcharge table on your website which lists surcharge amounts for regions including Latin America and Europe, Middle East, Africa in the Destination section. According to the notes section, the destinations listed include Cuba under “Latin America (All Other Countries)” and Iran, Sudan and Syria under “Europe, Middle East, Africa.” Iran, Sudan and Cuba are identified by the U.S. State Department as state sponsors of terrorism and are subject to U.S. economic sanctions and export controls.

Apparently the SEC thinks that all exports to these countries are banned. The time that the OGS staff spent surfing the web apparently did not extend to researching economic sanctions laws and discovering, say, TSRA, which permits exports of agricultural products, medicine and medical devices to sanctioned countries. Or the Berman amendment which permits export of informational materials. Never mind any of the other exceptions.

UPS replied by saying this:

The appearance of any country on the sanctions list on a UPS listing of surcharge amounts, explained [UPS Vice-President Norman] Brothers, applies only to lawful deliveries. “During the period July 10, 2006 through December 31, 2010, UPS rejected at least 55 shipments destined for Syria because they were determined to be impermissible under U.S. export controls.”

The SEC was reportedly unembarrassed its crude understanding of U.S. export laws and immediately returned to more web surfing. You can start humming that Gershwin tune: “Nice work if you can get it.”

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Copyright © 2011 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
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Aug

12

AMD Queried By SEC Over AMD Chips In Iran


Posted by at 8:15 pm on August 12, 2009
Category: Iran SanctionsSEC

SEC HQAn earlier post here reported that the SEC has sent a letter to Intel inquiring as to how Intel Celeron microprocessors wound up in computers being sold in Cuba. According to an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Intel’s “misery” has a little company in arch-rival AMD, which also received a letter from the SEC inquiring as to how AMD chips wound up in a “supercomputer” in Iran as reported in December 2007. AMD’s response was similar to Intel’s response: “We have no earthly idea but we want to reaffirm that AMD complies with all laws forbidding exports to embargoed countries.”

Avid readers of this blog will remember that we covered this story back in December 2007 when Iran announced that it had built its alleged supercomputer using AMD chips. A little detective work on our part also revealed exactly how the AMD chips made it to Iran. They got there by way of a reseller located in — quelle surprise! — the UAE. Who on earth would have ever imagined that the UAE would have been the source of the chips? Obviously, the SEC doesn’t read this blog or it wouldn’t have had to ask how the chips made it to Iran.

The WSJ article interviewed John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org who added some unintentional comic relief to the story:

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C., area think tank focused on security issues, said it’s puzzling that the SEC would be focused on the issue of computer chip exports to embargoed nations.

“Why SEC? Hard to figure, unless some rocket scientist wanted to create a really robust paper trail that these companies have no direct dealings with embargoed countries,” he said in an e-mail.

Naturally it’s puzzling to people who apparently know little about the SEC and what it does, although you might have thought that Pike might have at least caught some of the news reports on the SEC’s Office of Global Security Risk (“OGSR”). That office was created to respond to a Congressional mandate that the SEC assure that documents filed by publicly-traded companies adequately disclose global security risks arising from the international activities of those companies.

The OGSR has, as a result, focused, among other things, on issuers’ dealings with embargoed countries, as we noted here and here. So there’s no mystery, at least to the reasonably well-informed, as to what the SEC is up to and why. And it’s also quite clear that Pike’s wild speculation that the SEC is trying to create a “robust paper trail” that the companies weren’t dealing with sanctioned countries is, well, silly.

But wait, there’s more from Pike:

He said the embargo made sense since “it would be stupid to make it easy for Iran to get this stuff.”

As if it were hard, in this instance, for Iran to get a mass-produced item from a distributor just across the Strait of Hormuz. In fairness to Pike, let’s just hope he was misquoted.

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Copyright © 2009 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
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Aug

7

¡Viva El Celeron Libre!


Posted by at 2:04 pm on August 7, 2009
Category: Cuba SanctionsSEC

Intel Inside CubaA report today in the Internet edition of Electronics Weekly brought to my attention some correspondence back in June between the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Intel. The correspondence arose from newspaper reports in May that Cuba had lifted its ban on sales of PCs to individuals and that, as a result, a PC with an Intel Celeron processor could now be (at least theoretically) purchased by ordinary Cuban citizens for just under $800.

That got some of the SEC staff scratching their heads over how on earth an Intel chip wound up in Cuba. Apparently they don’t teach a class on re-exports in SEC bureaucrat training school. So, the SEC fired off a letter asking Intel why it hadn’t disclosed its nefarious dealings with Cuba in any of its SEC filings.

Intel’s response is a model of understated wit in response to an asinine agency inquiry. The shorter form of the reply goes something like this: “We didn’t disclose our dealings in Cuba because we don’t have any such dealings as they would be illegal. D’oh!” More specifically the reply to the SEC stated:

Intel prohibits all transactions with countries identified under certain trade related sanctions. … Consequently, the company prohibits all business transactions with the Subject Countries, which are included in the list of embargoed countries under the Export Regulations, through its export compliance program and takes appropriate action to enforce this policy through customer contracts, policy reminder communications, training of employees and customers, and investigation of potential policy violations. …

On occasion, Intel has followed up with customers regarding possible shipments of Intel products to the Subject Countries in violation of Intel’s policy, but there have not been any instances of Intel direct shipments or customer shipments with the express or implied agreement of Intel, to such countries.

Having gotten that out of the way, Intel schools the SEC on how Celeron processors might have found their way into Cuba. The press reports on the Cuban computers indicated that they were assembled in Cuba using parts imported from China. Intel then wryly notes:

We do not know if an Intel customer in China, or a party who purchased processors from an Intel customer in China, shipped the parts to Cuba, nor if the article is accurate with regard to the reference to China. Each year we sell millions of microprocessors to approximately 13,000 customers in China.

But Intel saves its best zinger for last:

[D]ue to the travel and other constraints imposed by the embargo, it was not feasible for Intel to investigate this matter in Cuba.

Hehe.

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Copyright © 2009 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
(No republication, syndication or use permitted without my consent.)

Jul

25

SEC List of Companies Doing Business in Terror States Taken Down


Posted by at 4:43 pm on July 25, 2007
Category: SEC

SEC SealWe’d like to think that our post critical of the SEC’s list of public companies doing business in Syria, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, and Iran had something to do with the SEC’s decision to remove the list from its website. But, in all honesty, we’ll have to admit that a storm of protest from more important people on the Hill was more likely the cause.

The SEC press release announcing the removal of the list made clear that the list hadn’t been killed but, instead, was undergoing surgery:

We are temporarily suspending the availability of the web tool while it undergoes reconstruction. We will work to improve the web tool so that it meets the various concerns that have been expressed.

It’s not clear how the list can be fixed unless it is transformed from a list that compiles companies that mention sanctioned countries in their filings to one in which the SEC staff exercises discretion to cull the bad companies doing bad things in the sanctioned countries from the good companies that have more innocuous connections to the sanctioned countries. Traditionally, the SEC has been disinclined to engage in such a function, preferring that company disclosures speak for themselves.

Some other interesting facts can be found in the press release. First, the list was enormously popular, receiving 150,000 hits over approximately three weeks. We get about 8,000 hits in three weeks — about 400 per day — so our board is going to meet in our world headquarters this weekend to consider putting the SEC list back up on this site. That’s a joke, of course. Please don’t send any threatening emails.

Also, the press release indicated that the countries clicked on were, in descending order, Iran, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea and Syria. Frankly, I’m surprised that people were more concerned about who was doing business in Cuba than in North Korea or Sudan, but maybe a bunch of people were clicking through Cuba looking for an Internet source for Cuban cigars.

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Copyright © 2007 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
(No republication, syndication or use permitted without my consent.)

Jul

2

SEC Is Making A List, Not Checking It Twice


Posted by at 8:43 pm on July 2, 2007
Category: SanctionsSEC

SEC SealA new link has appeared on the home page of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website. Under “Investor Information” there is a link called “State Sponsors of Terrorism” Hmmm, you wonder, the SEC now thinks that investors need to know which countries are state sponsors of terrorism? Perhaps, because when you click the link, there’s a list itemizing Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

But wait, there’s more. Each country on the list is linked to a list of companies that mentioned that particular country in its 2006 annual report. This list is clearly an outgrowth of the SEC’s Office of Global Security Risk, on which we’ve reported here before and which is tasked with reviewing securities filings of publicly-traded companies to determine whether, among other things, companies should disclose dealings with sanctioned countries.

Being on that list is probably not a good thing. So you might think that the SEC might exercise some discretion about who belongs on the list and who does not. But you would be wrong. Take for example, candy and soft drink giant Cadbury Schweppes, which is on the Syria list. But if you click the link on that page you will discover that Cadbury sold its operations in Syria. Yes, it’s on the list because the annual report mentioned Syria, but only in the context that it divested its operations in Syria. If the purpose of the list is to disclose to investors companies that are running a risk by having operations in sanctioned countries, that is hardly served by listing companies that have divested their operations in those countries.

Needless to say, the list is starting to draw fire from business interests. The Institute of International Banks, for example, charged that the blacklist could discourage banks from listing on U.S. securities exchanges, even though that might arguably be the goal of such a list.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: If it’s hot over the July 4th holiday, a certain Cadbury Schweppes product will, at my house, be liberally mixed with gin and a squeeze of fresh lime, so we may not be completely impartial in our reporting on Cadbury Schweppes.)

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Copyright © 2007 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
(No republication, syndication or use permitted without my consent.)