Stoelting Company and CEO Settle Charges
of Illegal Exports

The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced that Stoelting Company (Stoelting) of Wood Dale, Illinios, agreed to a $44,000 civil penalty and a five-year denial of export privileges to settle charges that it exported polygraph machines to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Stoelting’s President, LaVern Miller, also agreed to pay a $44,000 civil penalty to settle related charges. The five-year denial of export privileges is suspended provided Stoelting does not violate the EAR during that period.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) charged that between January 1998 and February 1999, Stoelting, under the direction of Miller, knowingly exported and attempted to export polygraph equipment without the required export licenses from the Department of Commerce. The polygraph equipment was diverted through Italy and Taiwan to the PRC. The Commerce Department controls the export of polygraph equipment to the PRC for crime control reasons.

In related criminal cases, Miller and Stoelting have also pled guilty in the Northern District of Illinois to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Sentencing for these related criminal charges is scheduled for September 2004.

Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Julie L. Myers commended Special Agent Ronald Orzel of BIS’s Chicago Field Office for his efforts in the investigation.