ROSCOE C. HOWARD, JR.
United States Attorney for the
District of Columbia

Judiciary Center
555 Fourth St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Contacts:
Channing Phillips (202) 514-6933 (USAO)
Scott Kamins (202) 482-2421 (DOC)

Washington, D.C. - United States Attorney Roscoe C. Howard, Jr. and Department of Commerce Acting Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Lisa A. Prager announced that Worldwide Sports & Recreation, Inc., which does business as Bushnell Corporation, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a two-count Information, charging Conspiracy and a substantive violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. In pleading guilty, Bushnell admitted to exporting, between September 1995 and December 1997, over 500 Night Ranger night vision devices to Japan and 14 other countries, without the required Department of Commerce export licenses. Under the plea agreement, Bushnell has agreed to pay a criminal fine of $650,000 and receive 5 years of corporate probation. In addition, the Department of Commerce, which administers and enforces export controls through its Bureau of Industry and Security, has the authority to impose civil penalties for such violations of the Export Administration Regulations. Bushnell is scheduled to be sentenced on June 10, 2003, before the Honorable Richard W. Roberts.

In announcing the guilty plea, United States Attorney Howard warned that "distributors of equipment with potential military use must be vigilant about compliance with export restrictions for the safety and protection of our national interests. Willful blindness and deliberate ignorance of the law is not an excuse when our national security is at issue."

Acting Assistant Secretary Prager added, "illegal exports such as these raise a concern regarding the diversion of shipments to countries and end-users that pose a direct threat to United States national security interests. We will continue to work with the night vision industry - the manufacturers, the domestic retailers, and the freight forwarders-to further educate them on our enforcement concerns and the risks associated with illegal exports of this equipment." The Night Rangers which Bushnell exported are thermal imaging binoculars and monoculars. Night vision equipment can be used against the United States interests, thereby diminishing our potential technological advantage.

Under the Export Administration Regulations, optical sensors, such as the Night Rangers, are controlled for national security, foreign policy, military technology and nuclear non-proliferation reasons. There is an exception for some optical sensors if the shipments are below $3,000, but that exception does not apply to Night Rangers, which must always be licensed regardless of what country the Night Ranger is being shipped to and regardless of how many are being shipped.

According to the government's investigation, Bushnell was informed of the comprehensive licensing requirement when it entered into a distributorship agreement in 1994 by the manufacturer and its own lawyers. In 1996, Bushnell received notification from the Department of Commerce, which stated that the Night Ranger models it was selling, that is, Model 150 (a monocular) and 250 (a binocular), required validated licenses for each individual shipment to all countries (except Canada), and were not subject to the General License Value exception for low-value shipments.

Bushnell began selling Night Ranger night vision equipment in 1995. Although it obtained export licenses for five shipments of 11 Night Rangers that it shipped directly overseas, it did not obtain export licenses for the bulk of its international shipments which required export licenses, in particular for shipments to Japan and for certain low-value shipments to other countries.

With regard to the Japanese sales, Bushnell arranged to deliver Night Rangers it had sold to a Japanese company in Japan to a "friend company" in the U.S., which then exported the Night Rangers to Japan. There were 11 total shipments, totaling 471 Night Rangers, valued at over $300,000, from Bushnell, exported for sale by the Japanese company in Japan, without obtaining an export license for those exports from the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. The dates and details of the transactions are stated in the Information to which the defendant corporation is pleading guilty.

With regard to shipments made to other countries, a Bushnell mid-level manager of the International Sales Department told her staff that low-value shipments of Night Rangers under $3,000 could be shipped internationally without an export license. Even after the Commodity Classification was received and distributed to the International Sales Department, which Classification explicitly stated that an export license was required for all shipments and that no exception applied, Bushnell continued to ship Night Rangers without an export license if the value of the shipment was under $3,000, from July 19, 1996, to February 13, 1997. As set forth in the Information, 15 of these shipments were made, totaling 37 Night Rangers, valued at $33,290.

U.S. Attorney Roscoe C. Howard, Jr. and Acting Assistant Secretary Prager commended the work of Senior Special Agent David Poole and Senior Special Agent Christopher Tafe as well as the U.S. Customs Service Office of Investigations-Boston. They also praised Assistant United States Attorney Wendy Wysong