BAE Systems to pay $36m penalty after 104 violations of US arms export rules
State department says it has reached administrative settlement with company’s US arm to resolve breaches The UK defence company BAE Systems is to pay a $36m (£26.7m) civil penalty after breaching US arms exports regulations more than 100 times. The US Department of State announced on Thursday that it had reached an administrative settlement with the US arm of BAE to resolve 104 violations of the…
The UK defense firm BAE Systems has agreed to a $36 million penalty for violating US arms export regulations over 104 times. The US Department of State reached an administrative settlement with BAE Systems' US arm to resolve the breaches, which included unauthorized exports of technical data to countries like China, violations of Directorate of Defense Trade Controls authorizations, and more.
BAE Systems voluntarily disclosed all but one of the alleged violations, avoiding a higher penalty. The company also persuaded the state department to suspend half of the penalty, provided it used $18 million to strengthen its compliance program. BAE Systems committed to fully complying with all export control laws and had been working to improve its compliance program.
The state department emphasized the importance of exporting defense articles only with appropriate authorization. BAE Systems was accused of sending technical data related to printed wiring boards for GPS to a Chinese manufacturer, military GPS data to Canada, an "explosive mixture" technical specification to the UK, guided-missile destroyer data to Germany, and a US navy guided-missile destroyer's control system to Switzerland.
A BAE subcontractor also furnished defense services without authorization on multiple occasions in Italy, France, and Indonesia, and accidentally exported a control system for a military gas-turbine engine to Switzerland.
Written by urgent.news from Guardian Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
