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The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) today
announced it has imposed a $65,000 administrative penalty on Serfilco, Ltd.
for allegedly violating a 1996 export denial order. In addition to the penalty,
Serfilco’s export privileges to Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and the Republic
of Yemen have been denied for three years.
“The fine reflects the seriousness with which BIS regards violations of denial orders,” said Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Lisa Prager.
The Department alleged that Serfilco, a Northbrook, Illinois company and manufacturer of commercial filtration and pumping equipment, violated the terms of a denial order imposed by Commerce in 1996 for selling goods to companies in the United States for export to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and by negotiating the sale of goods to companies in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in 1996 and 1997. While neither admitting nor denying the charges, Serfilco agreed to the administrative penalties.
The 1996 denial order – which prohibited Serfilco from participating in any transaction involving an export or negotiating a sale for export from the United States to the eleven countries for a one-year period – was imposed after Serfilco violated the antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Regulations by giving information about its business relationship with Israel when it responded to a boycott questionnaire from an Iraqi distributor and for failing to report to BIS its receipt of boycott-related requests.
Prager commended two BIS officials who conducted the investigation of this case: Special Agent Richard Greene of the Office of Export Enforcement’s field office in Chicago and Compliance Officer Ned Weant at Export Enforcement headquarters in Washington, D.C.