BIS Imposes Civil Penalty for Unlicensed Exports of Fire Detection Equipment to India
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) today announced that General Monitors of Lake Forest, California, agreed to pay a $40,000 civil penalty to settle charges that it violated the Export Administration Regulations when it failed to obtain the required export licenses for shipments of gas and fire detection equipment to India. General Monitors develops and produces gas monitoring and flame detection instrumentation.
In its charging letter, BIS alleged that in December 1998, General Monitors exported gas and fire detection equipment on six occasions without the required licenses to Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) in Hyderabad, India. BIS also charged that on 12 occasions between 1998 and 2001, General Monitors falsely indicated that shipments to BHEL did not require an export license on Shipper’s Export Declarations (SEDs) accompanying shipments to BHEL.
At the time of the export, BHEL was on BIS’s Entity List and exports to BHEL therefore required prior authorization. The Entity List is a compilation of end users who have been determined to present an unacceptable risk of diversion to developing weapons of mass destruction or missiles used to deliver these weapons. All exports to those appearing on the Entity List require licenses. BIS maintains the Entity List to inform the public of the export license requirements related to these entities.
BIS noted that General Monitors voluntarily self-disclosed some of the violations and cooperated with the investigation.
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