3:01 Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Wendy Wysong offers FY2006's enforcement statistics: 34 criminal convictions w/$3 million in criminal fines, 104 administrative cases w/$13.1 million in administrative penalties and 180 warning letters. That includes both export and antiboycott cases. [See the BIS FOIA site for full details of many of these.]
3:13 Antiboycott slice of the pie included 9 administrative settlements totaling $80,000 plus 3 warning letters, which is more than last year (but still seems quite limited).
3:18 Prohibited boycott requests from Kuwait, Yemen, and Iraq increased from 2005. Most requests originating in Iraq are from the Iraqi Government.
3:25 BIS completed 242 pre-license checks (23 unfavorable) and 700 post-shipment verifications (145 unfavorable) in FY2006. Based in part on these checks, BIS will soon be publishing additional names to the Unverified List.
3:26 Wysong makes the case for voluntary self-disclosure: it's a mitigating factor of great weight, BIS gives at least a 50% discount off the maximum fine as credit and acknowledges the exporter's cooperation. There are signs that her pitch may be working. The number of VSDs has increased from 78 in FY04 to 148 the following year and 157 in FY05. Only 7 of the resolved cases from the past three years have resulted in fines of any size.
3:34 You do know that the maximum IEEPA penalty for an EAR violation while the EAA is lapsed is now $50,000, don't you? Otherwise, Wysong says that the principles and procedures behind enforcement actions will remain the same despite the higher penalties.
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