The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today that Omega Engineering Inc. (“Omega”), of Stamford, Connecticut, will pay $187,000 in civil penalties to settle charges that it illegally exported laboratory equipment to Pakistan. In addition, Omega and its Vice President, Ralph Michel, will have their export privileges to Pakistan denied for five years.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) charged that Omega exported certain laboratory equipment to Pakistan in 1997, although the Commerce Department had denied a license for the same shipments earlier that year.

On April 29, 2003, in U.S. District Court in Hartford, Connecticut, Omega and Michel pleaded guilty to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Export Administration Regulations on related charges. The U.S. District Court sentenced Michel to 10 months of confinement, followed by three years of supervised probation, and fined him $50,000 in penalties. The U.S. District Court fined Omega $313,000 in penalties, placed the company on corporate probation for five years, and ordered the company to implement an export compliance program.

Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Julie L. Myers commended Special Agent Edward Hayden of BIS’s Boston Field Office, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in New Haven, Connecticut for their roles in the investigation of the case.