Archive for May, 2011


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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May

25

Belgian Man Arrested for Exports to Iran


Posted by at 1:08 am on May 25, 2011
Category: Criminal PenaltiesIran Sanctions

Belgium-Iran FriendshiplA superseding indictment was released last week that charged a Belgian citizen and resident with violating U.S. export laws by transshipping items from the United States to Iran through Belgium. This indictment is, in many respects, typical of the increasing prosecutions of foreigners for export activities occurring in those foreign countries. Willy A.E. De Greef is accused of taking orders from Iranian customers for helicopter and aircraft parts, sourcing those parts from U.S. suppliers, shipping the parts to Belgium and then shipping them on to Iran. Several things about the indictment, however, are interesting.

First, the indictment charges Degreef with money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956 based on the wiring of funds from Belgium to the United States to pay for the parts ultimately shipped to Iran. Of course, this doesn’t sound like the traditional notion of money laundering, but even so one part of the money laundering statute appears to cover such wire transfers even though there was no attempt to launder the money to conceal that the money represents the proceeds of a criminal activity. Section 1956(a)(2)(A) prohibits the transmission of money from outside the United States into the United States for purposes of carrying on “specified unlawful activity.” One such activity specified by the statute is violation of the export laws.

Second, the indictment also charges Degreef with wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. The wire fraud charges are based on emails allegedly sent by De Greef to the U.S. suppliers in which De Greef claimed the products would not be shipped to Iran.

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May

20

Los Angeles Next Week


Posted by at 11:53 am on May 20, 2011
Category: General

Several readers have asked that I alert them about speaking engagements. I will be in LA next week on Tuesday and Wednesday for breakfast briefings sponsored by Bryan Cave (naturally) and the U.S. Commercial Service of the Department of Commerce. The invitation is below and you can click to register. Even if there is no such thing as a free lunch, there is a free breakfast if you attend!

Westlake Village Downtown
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May

18

We Have A Winner Here. Ding. Ding. Ding.


Posted by at 8:41 pm on May 18, 2011
Category: DDTCITARPart 122

Itar SealEach time a company tries to tout its registration under Part 122 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the claims for the meaning of this registration become more and more outlandish. Scaling peaks not yet scaled by an other registrants is a press release and the website of Aegis Electronic Group, Inc. Somebody in Aegis’s PR department is intent on not letting a red cent of the $2,250 registration fee go to waste.

First, the press release:

Receiving this registration demonstrates that Aegis Electronic Group, Inc. has the knowledge and understanding to fully comply with the Arms Export Control Act (AECE) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations, as well as having corporate procedures and controls in place to ensure compliance.

Er, no. Registration demonstrates that Aegis figured out how to fill out a form DS-2032 and pay the registration fee. There’s no test of Aegis’s knowledge or audit of its corporate procedures and controls. All that registration certifies is that Aegis had $2,250 in its bank account when its check for the registration fee cleared.

And then we have the website. At the top of the site, we have this language:

Aegis Electronic Group, Inc. is proud to be recognized by the United States Government as an International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) registered manufacturer/exporter.

“Recognized.” Did I miss the awards ceremony?

But best of all, the website is adorned with a seal to certify registration. Yes, an official looking seal that someone in their PR department cooked up on Adobe Illustrator and emblazoned with the legend “International Traffic in Arms Regulations Compliant.” It’s gold too. The seal is shown in the illustration on the left side of this post.

I now predict an out-of-control seal proliferation race as new registrants come up with more and more elaborate and official looking seals to outdo the last one cooked up by a registrant. Buy stock in Adobe now and encourage your kids to become graphic artists to get in on the ground floor of all this.

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May

17

UAE Finds Prince Of Its Dreams


Posted by at 8:03 pm on May 17, 2011
Category: DDTC

UAEOn Sunday, the New York Times revealed that the UAE had hired Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, to provide certain training service in the Emirates. The Times described them this way:

The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year.

Of course, the first question that pops to mind to us export junkies is whether this is legal or not. Fortunately, the Times had the good sense to call my colleague at Bryan Cave, Susan Kovarovics, and ask her that question.

Susan Kovarovics, an international trade lawyer who advises companies about export controls, said that because Reflex Responses was an Emirati company it might not need State Department authorization for its activities.

But she said that any Americans working on the project might run legal risks if they did not get government approval to participate in training the foreign troops.

Susan’s answer is spot on, particularly inasmuch as she said U.S. persons “might” run legal risks. Although the case might, at first, seem an open and shut case where a license is required, it really isn’t, depending on the precise boundaries of the services provided by Mr. Prince’s company. The difficult issue is drawing the line between military and police activity, a line that may be difficult to draw in autocracies like the UAE where there is no clear distinction between the police and military forces and the roles they play.

The definition of defense services in section 120.6 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) covers, among other things, training foreign persons in the use of defense articles. But training with respect to prevention of, say, domestic terror attacks or popular uprisings might not involve training in the use of defense articles. Under the proposed new definition of defense services, training foreign troops on the use of defense articles would itself be excluded if the information provided is in the public domain. In most instances, of course, the best way to minimize risk as to whether a particular aspect of training oversteps the bounds is to have the Department of State approve a Technical Assistance Agreement covering the training.

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Copyright © 2011 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
(No republication, syndication or use permitted without my consent.)