As posted by the Office of Antiboycott Compliance
US Department of Commerce
St. Jude Medical Export GmbH Settles
Charges of Antiboycott Violations
The U.S.
Department of Commerce today announced that St. Jude Medical Export GmbH (St.
Jude), an Austrian subsidiary of a Minnesota-based U.S. exporter of medical
equipment, has agreed to pay a $30,000 civil penalty to settle charges that it
violated the antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Regulations
(EAR).
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of
Industry and Security (BIS) charged that St. Jude violated the EAR when it
failed to report in a timely manner its receipt of three requests from an Iraqi
government agency to adhere to the rules of the Israeli boycott during the
2000-2001 reporting period. BIS also charged that, on four occasions, St. Jude
violated the antiboycott provisions by agreeing to refuse to do business with
blacklisted persons.
The antiboycott provisions of
the EAR prohibit U.S. persons from complying with certain requirements of
unsanctioned foreign boycotts, including providing information about business
relationships with another person who is known or believed to be restricted
from having a business relationship with or in a boycotting country. In
addition, the EAR requires that U.S. persons report their receipt of certain
boycott requests to the Department of Commerce. Under the antiboycott
provisions of the EAR, a controlled-in-fact foreign subsidiary of a domestic
U.S. company is considered a U.S. person.
St. Jude
voluntarily disclosed the transactions and cooperated fully with the
investigation.
Assistant Secretary for Export
Enforcement Julie L. Myers commended Compliance Officer Perry Province of
BIS’s Office of Antiboycott Compliance, for his work on this case.
