BIS Says 2023 Saw Record Number of Export Enforcement Convictions, Denial Orders

The Commerce Department’s export enforcement actions in 2023 resulted in the “highest number ever” of convictions, temporary denial orders and post-conviction denial orders, the Bureau of Industry and Security wrote in a year-end review. It also said it worked with foreign governments to complete over 1,500 end-use checks, “our most ever in a single year,” and added more than 465 parties from China, Iran, Russia and elsewhere to the Entity List.

In the three-page document, released on Jan. 2, BIS said the Disruptive Technology Strike Force that it launched with DOJ in February to keep critical technologies out of the hands of adversary countries (see 2302160019) resulted in “numerous” indictments, TDOs and Entity List additions. The initial round of strike force cases, announced in May, involved the indictment of six people for trying to illegally ship sensitive items from the U.S. to China, Iran and Russia (see 2305160086).

Also in 2023, BIS imposed the largest stand-alone administrative penalty in its history -- a $300 million fine on California-based Seagate Technology for violating U.S. export controls against China-based Huawei (see 2304190071).

In other significant cases, the bureau worked with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to impose a $3.3 million penalty against Microsoft to settle alleged export control and sanctions violations largely related to the company’s foreign subsidiaries (see 2304060054). It imposed a $2.77 million penalty on a 3D printing company for sending export-controlled blueprints for aerospace and military electronics to China (see 2302270078).

BIS imposed over $425,000 in penalties on companies for alleged violations of anti-boycott regulations. These included a $283,500 fine on a foreign subsidiary of U.S. manufacturer Regal Beloit America for failing to report boycott requests (see 2305180054).