International Trade Law News

The U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey announced yesterday, July 29, 2004, that the president of a Mount Laurel, New Jersey company and his wife were arraigned on a 46-count indictment charging that they used their business to illegally export sensitive national-security controlled items to state-sponsored research institutes and factories within the People’s Republic of China.

The indictment charged the president of Universal Technologies, Inc. (UTI) and his
wife with one count of conspiracy, 10 counts of money laundering, 22 counts of exporting in violation of the Export Administration Act (EAA), and 13 counts of making false statements in violation of the EAA. The indictment alleges that the two defendants illegally exported items that are used in a wide variety of defense weapons systems, including radar, smart weapons, electronic warfare and communications to China. The indictment claims that the defendants used various techniques to conceal their export activities, such as providing false statements on shipping documents to conceal that the shipments contained national-security controlled items by falsely certifying on shipping documents that no license was required to ship the goods to China when, in fact, a license was required.

The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Each count of money laundering carries a maximum penalty 20 years in prison and a fine of
$500,000 or twice the amount of the money laundering, whichever is greater. The violations of the Export Administration Regulations carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.