Bushnell Corporation fined $650,000
as part of sentence for
illegally exporting night vision equipment

Washington, D.C. - United States Attorney Roscoe C. Howard, Jr. and Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Lisa A. Prager today announced that Worldwide Sports & Recreation, Inc., which does business as Bushnell Corporation, was sentenced to a $650,000 criminal fine and five years of probation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for 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 a separate agreement with the Department of Commerce, Bushnell agreed to pay a civil fine of $223,000 and receive a one year denial of export privileges (suspended). Bushnell’s sentence was imposed by the Honorable Richard W. Roberts.

United States Attorney Howard heralded the sentence as a warning to manufacturers, distributors, and exporters of night vision equipment that has potential military use. “Export licensing requirements and restrictions are not to be deliberately evaded or blindly ignored. Our national security is put at risk when export compliance is not taken seriously,” said Mr. Howard.

Acting Assistant Secretary Prager stated, “the Night Rangers that Bushnell exported are optical imaging binoculars and monoculars. These illegal exports can be diverted to countries and end-users that pose a direct threat to U.S. national security interests.”

Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, optical sensors, such as the Night Rangers, are controlled for national security and foreign policy reasons. While some optical sensors, whose value is less than $3,000, may be exported to some destinations without a license, that exception does not apply to Night Rangers, which must be licensed to all countries, except Canada, regardless of the value of the shipment.

Bushnell was informed by the manufacturer and its own lawyers of the comprehensive export licensing requirement when it entered into a distributorship agreement in 1994. 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 licenses for each individual shipment to all countries (except Canada), and were not subject to the license 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 that 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 to a company in the United States that was conspiring with the Japanese purchase. The U.S. company exported the Night Rangers to Japan. Bushnell exported 11 shipments, totaling 471 Night Rangers, valued at over $300,000, to the Japanese company 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 defendant pleaded guilty on April 16, 2003.

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 a Commodity Classification explicitly stating that an export license was required for all shipments and that no exception applied was received and distributed to the International Sales Department, Bushnell continued, from July 19, 1996, to February 13, 1997, to ship Night Rangers without an export license even if the value of the shipment was under $3,000. As set forth in the Information, 15 of these shipments were made, totaling 37 Night Rangers, valued at $33,290.

In announcing today’s sentence, U.S. Attorney Howard and Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement 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.