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May 12, 2010 - Balli Aviation Ltd., a subsidiary of the United Kingdom-based Balli Group PLC, was sentenced Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to pay a $2 million fine and to serve a five-year corporate period of probation. This after pleading guilty on Feb. 5, 2010, to a two-count criminal information in connection with its illegal export of commercial Boeing 747 aircraft from the United States to Iran. Consistent with the plea agreement, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle sentenced Balli Aviation Ltd. to a maximum fine of $2 million and corporate probation for five years. |
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The $2 million fine, combined with a related
$15 million civil settlement among Balli Group PLC, Balli Aviation
Ltd., the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and
Security (BIS), and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), is one of the largest fines for an
export violation in BIS history.
Under the terms of the related civil settlement, Balli Group PLC and Balli Aviation Ltd. have agreed to pay a civil penalty of $15 million, of which $2 million will be suspended if there are no further export control violations. In addition, Balli Aviation Ltd. and Balli Group PLC are denied export privileges for five years, although this penalty will be suspended provided that neither Balli Aviation, Ltd. nor Balli Group PLC commits any export violations and pays the civil penalty. Under the terms of the settlement, Balli Group PLC and Balli Aviation, Ltd. will also have to submit the results of an independent audit of its export compliance program to BIS and OFAC for each of the next five years. According to count one of the criminal information filed with the court, beginning in at least October 2007, through July 2008, Balli Aviation Ltd. conspired to export three Boeing 747 aircraft from the United States to Iran without first having obtained the required export license from BIS or authorization from OFAC, in violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the Iranian Transactions Regulations. |
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