Where Industry and Security Intersect
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WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Department of Commerce today imposed the maximum civil penalty of $30,000 against AAT Communications of Staten Island, NY to settle allegations that, in shipping electronic test equipment and communications components believed to be destined for Iran, the company violated U.S. export control laws. Commerce Acting Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Frank Deliberti made the announcement.
On three separate occasions between December, 1990 and February, 1991, AAT exported U.S. -origin electronic test equipment and communications components from the United States to the United Kingdom using general license G-DEST as the authority to export the commodities. The Department alleged that AAT misused general license G-DEST in making those exports because the company knew or had reason to believe that the commodities would be reexported from the United Kingdom to Iran. In each case, the reexport of the commodities from the United Kingdom to Iran had not been approved by the Department. Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement New York Field Office investigated the case.
The Department of Commerce controls and licenses the export and re-export of dual-use commodities and technical data. Commerce’s Bureau of Export Administration maintains and enforces these controls for reasons of national security, foreign policy, non-proliferation and short supply. The U.S. government maintains a comprehensive economic sanctions program against the government of Iran, which prohibits virtually all commercial transactions involving U.S.-origin goods or U.S. persons or both, with the government of Iran.
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.