US firm to pay $126,000 penalty for releasing missile technology to Indians

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

Washington : An American company has agreed to pay a $126,000 civil penalty to settle allegations of eight unlicensed deemed exports to Indian and Italian nationals in violation of Export Administration Regulations.


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Ingersoll Machine Tools (IMT) of Rockford, Illinois had agreed to pay the penalty for releasing production and development technology for vertical fibre placement machines and production technology for five axis milling machines to the nationals of the two countries between November 2003 and January 2007, officials said.

The technology was controlled for National Security and Missile Technology reasons to Italy and India, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the Department of Commerce said. In addition, the technology was also controlled to India for nuclear non-proliferation reasons.

Deemed exports are defined as any release of technology to a foreign national in the US. The Agency of the Commerce Department has not named the Indian nationals involved in the citation.

“Companies that employ foreign nationals must be mindful of the need to comply with the Export Administration Regulations as they relate to the release of technology or source code to foreign nationals,” Darryl W. Jackson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement stated Tuesday.

“An effective compliance programme will prohibit companies from releasing controlled technology to foreign visitors or employees without first having obtained authorisation from the Bureau of Industry and Security” he added.

The NIS controls exports and re-exports of dual-use commodities, technology, and software for reasons of national security, missile technology, nuclear non-proliferation, chemical and biological weapons non-proliferation, crime control, regional stability and foreign policy.

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