Enforcement
The mission of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Export Enforcement is to protect U.S. national security, homeland security, foreign policy, and economic interests through a law enforcement program focused on: sensitive exports to hostile entities or those that engage in onward proliferation; prohibited foreign boycotts; and related public safety laws. BIS's Export Enforcement (EE) is an elite law enforcement organization recognized for its expertise, professionalism, integrity, and accomplishments. EE accomplishes its mission through preventative and investigative enforcement activities and then, pursuing appropriate criminal and administrative sanctions against export violators.
In the post-9/11 world, the export control challenge is to enable legitimate global trade in U.S. goods and technology, while keeping these items out of the hands of weapons proliferators and terrorists. BIS addresses this challenge through assisting legitimate export traders to comply with export control and antiboycott requirements, preventing violations before they occur, and bringing willful export control violators to justice.
EE works with the Department of Justice to impose criminal sanctions for violations, including incarceration and fines, and with the Office of Chief Counsel for Industry and Security to impose civil fines and denials of export privileges. EE also works closely with other Federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, when conducting investigations or preventative actions.
EE consists of the Office of Export Enforcement (OEE), the Office of Enforcement Analysis (OEA), and the Office of Antiboycott Compliance (OAC). Together with BIS’s licensing officers and policy staff, EE employees apply their law enforcement and export control expertise to prevent and deter exports of the most sensitive items to illicit end-users and uses, to embargoed destinations, and to ensure that parties involved in U.S. commercial transactions do not engage in prohibited boycott activities.
