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(WASHINGTON) -- The Commerce Department has imposed a $19,000 civil penalty on Northern Trust Company, a Chicago, Ill., bank, to settle allegations that it violated the antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Act, John Despres, assistant secretary for Export Enforcement, announced today.
The Department alleged that Northern Trust violated the antiboycott provisions on three occasions when it failed to maintain records containing reportable requests it had received regarding Kuwait's boycott of Israel. The Department also alleged that on two other occasions Northern Trust failed to report its receipt of boycott requests contained in letters of credit. The alleged violations were committed between May 1992 and December 1993.
While neither admitting nor denying the allegations, the company agreed to pay the civil penalties.
The antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Act and Regulations apply to foreign boycotts fostered or imposed against a country which is friendly to the United States and which is not itself the object of any form of boycott under United States law or regulation.
As they relate to this action, the antiboycott provisions require United States companies and individuals to maintain records of boycott-related requests they receive and documents regarding such requests. At the time of the alleged record-keeping violations, the antiboycott regulations required U.S. companies and individuals to maintain such records for three years after receipt of the request. Current provisions require a five-year retention period.
U.S. companies and individuals are also required to report to the Department each boycott-related request they receive.
In April of 2002 the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) changed its name to the Bureau of Industry and Security(BIS). For historical purposes we have not changed the references to BXA in the legacy documents found in the Archived Press and Public Information.